I was lucky enough to catch this informative and concise exhibition at the British Library in London on its last day of display. Its core theme is the Avant-Garde Movement in European print. The dates ascribed by the curator (Chris Michaelides) for this movement are 1900s to 1937s, which spans the generic existence of Avant-Garde. On the global level, this period was full of changes and aspirations in various aspects of social life – cinema, music, literature, and the world politics. Since art is always a reflection and a contemplation of the world, one has to know the happenings worldwide in order to fully appreciate, understand, and enjoy the artwork itself.
Avant-garde appeared in the first half of the nineteenth century in France with the ideas of Henri de Saint-Simon, one of the forerunners of socialism. He thought that artists together with scientists and industrialists have the power to create a new society. “The notion of the avant-garde enshrines the idea that art should be judged primarily on the quality and originality of the artists vision and ideas.”
Avant-Garde is a generic term for multiple movements/styles in the art world such as Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, Dadaism, and Surrealism – each of them exited within different regions and strived for innovation in different ways. It existed in multiple mediums: painting, sculpture, print, photography, literature, and philosophy.
The most Avant-Garder artists are Duchamp, Man Ray, Rodchenko (photography), Kandinsky, Vertov (film), Brecht, Malevich, Ernst, Magritte, Bunuel (film), Braque, Picasso, Gris, etc.
I wish I had the time to write on each of the styles labeled under or as Avant-Garde and immerse myself into its ideologies, aesthetic and cultural pleasures – which I hope I will at some point of my life – however, for now, the British Library website does have enough of information for one to familiarize with such movement/style. Enjoy!
More information at:
http://www.bl.uk/breakingtherules
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=38
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2002/russian/(Russian Avant Garde exhibition organized in MOMA, NYC)