HISTORY OF AVANT GARDE-ORIGIN AND CONTROVERSY

1. AVANT GARDE
How it began!!!!

2. THE TERM
Avant-garde is originally a French term, meaning
in English vanguard or advance guard (the part
of an army that goes forward ahead of the rest).
It first appeared with reference to art in France in
the first half of the nineteenth century, and is
usually credited to the influential thinker Henri
de Saint-Simon, one of the forerunners of
socialism. He believed in the social power of the
arts and saw artists, alongside scientists and
industrialists, as the leaders of a new society. In
1825 he wrote:
We artists will serve you as an avant-garde, the
power of the arts is most immediate: when we
want to spread new ideas we inscribe them on
marble or canvas. What a magnificent destiny
for the arts is that of exercising a positive power
over society, a true priestly function and of
marching in the van [i.e. vanguard] of all the
intellectual faculties!

3. THE BEGINNING
■ Avant-garde art can be said to begin in the 1850s with the realism of Gustave
Courbet, who was strongly influenced by early socialist ideas. This was followed by
the successive movements of modern art, and the term avant-garde is more or less
synonymous with modern.
■ Some avant-garde movements such as cubism for example have focused mainly on
innovations of form, others such as futurism, De Stijl or surrealism have had strong
social programmes.

4. THE DEVELOPMENT
■ Although the term avant-garde was originally applied to innovative approaches to art
making in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it is applicable to all art that
pushes the boundaries of ideas and creativity, and is still used today to describe art
that is radical or reflects originality of vision.
■ The notion of the avant-garde enshrines the idea that art should be judged primarily
on the quality and originality of the artist’s vision and ideas.

5. SUBJECT OF
CONTROVERSY
EXAMPLE
Because of its radical
nature and the fact that it
challenges existing ideas,
processes and forms;
avant-garde artists and
artworks often go hand-in-
hand with controversy.

6. EDGAR DEGAS
Little Dancer Aged
Fourteen
1880–1, cast c.1922
Innocent though she may look to us today,
Degas's Little Dancer Aged Fourteen caused
an outcry when she was first exhibited at the
1881 impressionist exhibition in Paris. The
figure was described variously as 'repulsive'
and 'a threat to society'. Critics and the public
were upset by the realism of the work but
also because Degas had represented a
provocative modern subject ... dancers were
considered part of the seamier side of
entertainment and little more than
prostitutes.

7. ANDY WARHOL
Black Bean
1968
Pop artists rocked centuries of traditional
fine art values when they rejected
everything they had been taught in art
school and embraced instead the popular
culture they saw around them – such as
product packaging and advertising.
Although now a recognised and respected
art movement (which commands high
prices on the art market) pop art was once
considered a serious threat to the art
world.

8. JACKSON POLLOCK
Yellow Islands
1952
Jackson Pollock's 'drip' paintings may
seem very familiar to us now – but his
approach to painting, (he laid his canvases
on the floor and literally dripped and
splashed paint onto the surfaces), and the
paintings that resulted caused a splash
that went beyond the works themselves,
sealing his reputation as one of the most
recognised avant-garde artists of the
twentieth century.