Artistic Vanguards: What is it, Characteristics and Meanings

Artistic Vanguards

What are Artistic Vanguards:

Artistic vanguards are called the disruptive movements of the plastic arts that emerged from the 20th century, and which aimed to express the new times through the innovation of pictorial and / or sculptural language. Among them we can mention Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Abstractionism (with its different currents) and Surrealism.

The word avant-garde comes from the French expression avant-garde and this from the Latin ab ante , which means 'without anyone ahead', and garde , which means 'to keep'. Originally the term was used in military jargon to refer to those who lead the platoon opening the way in the fight.

Characteristics of the vanguards

Break with tradition
Rejection of naturalism in art
Original plastic language
Libertarian spirit
Spirit of provocation
Introduction of humor and sarcasm
Proclamation of the autonomy of plastic language
Justification by means of manifestos
Conceptual character
Influence of non-western art
Short duration .

Historical context of the artistic avant-gardes

In the 19th century, Europe was moving in a scenario of transformation and political, economic and social tensions derived from the industrial revolution, capitalism, imperialism, nationalism, the massification of society and secularization.

Along with this, the invention of photography and, later, cinema, was a blow to the arts. If until then Western art was dedicated to the imitation of nature, what would it do in the “era of technical reproducibility of the image”?

For the artists of the late nineteenth century, the need to find a new meaning to art was growing, as well as the will to differentiate style. This was expressed in Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Expressionism, and Fauvism. But despite their innovations, these movements were still tied to certain prerogatives of traditional art.

Origin of the artistic avant-gardes

In young artists the perception of the exhaustion of traditional art and a critical attitude towards the reigning ideological order (of the bourgeois type) predominated, which used the arts to legitimize itself. Instead, they valued the work of out-of-the-box artists such as post-impressionists (Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse, among others).

Some young artists in different parts of Europe were developing scandalous proposals, eager as they were to renew the arts and give a final blow to bourgeois taste. One of the first was Pablo Picasso with the canvas Les senoritas de Avignon , a foreshadowing of Cubism. From that moment on, the so-called historical avant-gardes began to emerge.

Historical vanguards

Historical avant-gardes is an expression used to refer to the artistic avant-gardes that appeared in the first half of the 20th century, which correspond to the first wave of avant-gardes.

These are Cubism (1907), Futurism (1909), Lyrical Abstractionism (1910), Dadaism (1913), Constructivism (1914), Suprematism (1915), Neoplasticism (1917) and Surrealism (1924) .

Contextually, these vanguards span from the period prior to World War I, to the interwar period, that is, the beginning of World War II.

In the interwar period, the appearance of the Bauhaus, a German school of architecture and design with an internationalist vocation, was very important, in which important avant-garde artists met who renewed the visual culture of the 20th century.

Vanguard movements

Cubism
Futurism
Lyrical abstraction
Dadaism
Constructivism
Suprematism
Neoplasticism
Surrealism
Abstract expressionism
Pop art or pop art
Op art or kineticism
Happening
Conceptual art
Performance
Hyperrealism
Minimalism

Update date: March 9, 2021.

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