Avant-garde

Avant-garde in French means advance guard, or vanguard. People often use the term to refer to people or works that are novel or experimental, particularly with respect to art, culture and politics.

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The vanguard, a small troop of highly skilled soldiers, explores the terrain ahead of a large advancing army and plots a course for the army to follow. This concept is applied to the work done by small bands of intellectuals and artists as they open pathways through new cultural or political terrain, for society to follow. Because of the implication of specialization of the avant-garde in military terms, some people feel the expression implies elitism when used to describe cultural movements.

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The term also refers to the promotion of social progress and reform, the aims of its various movements presented in public declarations called manifestos. Over time, avant-garde became associated with movements concerned with art for art's sake, focusing primarily on expanding the frontiers of aesthetic experience, rather than with wider social reform.

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The origin of the artistic avant-garde can be fixed at May 17, 1863, the opening of the Salon des Refus?s in Paris, organised by painters whose work was rejected for the annual Paris Salon of officially sanctioned academic art. Salons des Refus?s was held in 1874, 1875, and 1886.

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By some assessments, avant-garde art includes street art, for example graffiti.

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Surrealism claims to have transcended the avant-garde.

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French: French can refer to more than one article:...

Vanguard: Vanguard can mean:...

Terrain: Terrain, or land relief, is the third or vertical dimension of land surface. When relief is described underwater, the term bathymetry is used. Topography has recently become an additional synonym, though in many parts of the world it retains its original more general meaning of description of place....

Avant-garde related Images and Photos (experimental)

Avant-Garde Wedding Gown	USSR: Udarnaya Brigada Proletariata Vsego Avant Garde	Avant: Director	Avant: Director
Le Garde-Meuble I	Le Garde-Meuble II	Battle of Eylau the French Garde Imperiale Charge Gloriously Against the Prussians and Russians	During the Retreat from Moscow Napoleon Stretches His Legs Leading the Garde Imperiale on Foot