Avant-grade

The meaning of the word Avant-grade is advance guard. In English the adjective form is used to denote the people or any work of art that is innovative or experimental. It is particularly with respect to culture, politics and art.

For modernism, the existence of Avant- grade is said to be the Hallmark. Tracking from Dada in the history through the Situationists to the postmodern artists like the language poet, everyone has joined themselves with the avant-grade movement during around 1981.

In the army this term was used originally especially when they are advancing into battle. But, it is applied now to any group that feels itself innovative. Especially to the artists who consider themselves innovative. Though the origin of this term in French is still being debated, the impact of this concept in philosophy is great.

Even the promotion of radical social reforms is referred through this term.  "L'artiste, le savant et l'industriel," by Saint Simonian Onlinde Rodrigues contains the use of term “avant- garde”. This is the first ever recorded use of the term. At time passed by, the term avant-garde became more popular and also joined itself with “art for art’s sake” movements. There it focused mainly on enlarging the boundaries of aesthetic experience rather than social reform.

There are so many writers who tried to map the parameters of avant-garde. The Italian essayist Renato Poggioli in his book in 1962 “Teoria dell’arte d’avanguardia” figures out the most useful and appreciated analysis of vanguardism.

Even vanguardists may be seen as sharing certain ideals or values that were put in the lifestyles of the non-conformist says Poggioli reaching beyond poetry and music to show the magnanimity of vanguardists.

The writer, thinkers and composers, whose work is opposed to commercial values and has got a political edge, is referred to avant-garde.

The formative years of modernism has got so many critics and writers who made assertions about vanguard culture. The advertising industry with its power was charging to take visual mannerism from surrealism. This can’t conclude saying that the 1930s photographers are surreal.

The German writer and philosopher Greenberg used the term kitsch inorder to describe the antithesis of Avant-grade culture. The term mass culture was coined by the members of the Frankfurt School in order to indicate that a newly emerged culture industry would produce this kind of bogus culture.

According to Horal Rosenberg, the New York critic, the culture has become "a profession one of whose aspects is the pretense of overthrowing it."

Questions

• What is the meaning of the word avant-guard?
• Where is avant-guard first used?