The Avant-Garde Art: Aesthetic Revolutions & their Consequences

Why have the extreme approaches of the avant-garde art born in the early 20th century remained relevant to this day? What are the factors that revive the avant-garde mental and emotional modes? The "historical avant-garde", which has crystallized in European culture in many artistic currents (Cubism, Dada, Constructivism, etc.) determined the revolutionary essence of modernism. The avant-garde rebelled against all aesthetic and social conventions, and against the institution of art based on the traditional principle of artistic autonomy. The avant-garde sought to create art mixed with social practice. The prevailing opinion among scholars is that the "historical avant-garde" failed in its heroic mission, reaching its tragic end in the 1930s. However, despite the denial of the revolutionary values of modernism by post-modernism after the World War II, the "neo-avant-garde" in the United States and Europe renewed and developed the artistic methods of the "historical avant-garde". Under the new socio-historical and political conditions of the second half of the 20th century, the avant-garde impulse was expressed in art activism and spread throughout the world. The avant-garde revolt against the existing state of society and culture in the 21st century is manifested in a variety of phenomena, including the spread of street art and the “post-internet” art. In this seminar we will discuss the characteristics, factors, circumstances and roles of the avant-garde in different periods, as well as, the academic discourse on theories of avant-garde art.