a.vant-garde

–noun

1.	the advance group in any field, esp. in the visual, literary, or musical arts, whose works are characterized chiefly by unorthodox and experimental methods.

–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.

from dictionary.com

"Avant-garde. . . means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics." from wikipedia.com

The notion of avant garde as related to mainstream culture was developed largely during the early 2oth century by cultural and critical theorists. These theorists described the "vanguard" or "avant garde" as the rejection or opposition to mainstream values. The values the avant-garde opposed were largely dictated by industrialization and capitalism, and, according to critic Clement Greenberg, based on phony, fake, and mechanical cultural constructs. Yet, like Benjamin discussed in "Art in the Age of Mechanic Reproduction," it's a fine line the opposition must walk if they are to be sure to remain truly oppositional instead of being made into a pawn by the same culture that is the subject of the criticism. A New York City critic, Rosenblum, suggested that from the mid-1960s onward, progressive culture has ceased to play it's oppositional role and instead, is bordered by what he called "avant-garde ghosts" on one end and a culture in a constant state of flux on the other side. The interaction between the two is varied, but often the result is a Marxist indirect quashing of the avant-garde position. Due to it's reliance on mass culture and its inability to separate itself from the time and place of its existence, avant-garde opposition can actually be used by the 'ruling class' as an way to negate the relevance and importance of the avant-garde opinion. In other words, opposition is transformed into a mechanism used by and reflective of the 'ruling class' that its supposed to reject and critique.

In light of this, what does it mean to be avant-garde? What ideas, actions, definitions, and theoretical implications are imposed by the juxtaposition of present-day mass culture and the so-called empty-shelled existence of the avant-garde?



In 1968, when Cohen v. California was decided, the defendant's message "fuck the draft," printed on the back of his coat, was an effective cultural critique. The Supreme Court held that the it was a violation of the defendant's first amendment rights when he was arrested for wearing the jacket inside a courthouse. The jacket was an adversarial masterpiece, largely due to the constitutional issues it raised and tested.


What does this mean anymore?