Definition:
noun
1. an intelligentsia that develops new or experimental concepts especially in the arts. (www.m-w.com)
adjective
2. of or pertaining to the experimental treatment of artistic, musical, or literary material.
3. Belonging to the avant-garde: an avant-garde composer.
4. Unorthodox or daring; radical
(www.dictionary.com)
The term Avant-garde is from French. If it is translated into English it means "advance guard" or "vanguard". Originally this term was used to describe the foremost part of an army advancing into battle of which the significance is the same with that a small group of intelligentsia or artists push the normal boundaries into a new status. Also this term refers to radical social reforms. This meaning was evoked by Saint Simonian Olinde Rodrigues in this essay, "L'artiste, le savant et l'industriel," (“The artist, the scientist and the industrialist”, 1825). And it was first used in art realm on May,17th,1863, the opening of Salon des Refuses in Paris. (Salon de Refuses, French for "exhibition of rejects", is generally an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon) . From then on avant-garde is always associated with art rather than with other social reform.
Reference: wikipedia
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917.
Do you have any thoughts on the architects or architecture that is considered "avant-garde" today? What would be some criteria by which to classify "avant-garde" architecture?
ReplyDeleteActually I haven't thought about that before in architectural realm. If avant-garde means pioneer and experimental, avant- garde architecture perhaps means any experimental architecture. The criteria might just be "new", "ahead of the current status".
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