Avant-garde is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English
speakers. It is sometimes used to refer to people or actions that are novel or experimental, particularly with respect to the
arts and culture.
‘Avant-garde’ is closely related to the English word “vanguard”. Both are derived from the widespread military
practice of deploying an advanced guard, a small troop of highly-skilled soldiers which would explore terrain ahead of a large advancing army and plot the course the army would follow. The
concept was adopted as a metaphor for the work done by small bands of intellectuals and artists as they open
pathways through new cultural or political terrain, for the mass of society to follow.
The official birthday of the avant-garde is May 17, 1863, the opening of the Salon des Refusés in Paris,
organised by painters who had been refused at the annual Salon of officially sanctioned ‘academic’ art. Later Salon des Refusés were held in
1874, 1875, and 1886. By 1881, the French government had withdrawn its support from the official Salons, which continued
anyway.
The avant-garde was originally identified with the promotion of social progress, seeing the group or individual so described
as the pioneer of a social reform movement.
Over time the term has also come to be associated with movements concerned with ‘art for art's sake’, concerned
primarily with expanding the frontiers of aesthetic experience, rather than with
wider social reform. The concept of an elite band of pioneers has also been seen by many
as elitist.
By some assessments, avant-garde art would include street art, for example Graffiti.
Surrealism claims to have transcended the avant-garde.
Examples of avant-garde
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