High Culture / Low Culture ‘Defining the Avant-Garde’
richard.miles@leeds-art.ac.uk
Objectives: Understand the term ‘avant-garde’ ●Question the way art/design education relies on the concept ●
of the avant-garde Understand the related concept of ‘art for art’s sake’ ●Question the notion of ‘genius’ ●Consider the political perspectives relating to avant-gardism ●Question the validity of the concept ‘avant-garde’ today ●
Dictionaries link Term – ‘avant-garde’ with terms like innovation in the arts or pioneers -
idea of doing art/design work that is progressive – innovating
-
but also it refers to the idea of there being a group of people being innovative –
-
1. being avant-garde in the work you do - challenging, innovating etc. 2. being a part of a group – being a member of the avant-garde
Marcel Duchamp
‘Fauves’ Wild Beasts
Visual Communications ‘The second level aims to let you experiment within you chosen range of disciplines’ ‘Our aim is to encourage students to take a radical approach to communication’ To be a student on the course you need to enjoy:‘Challenging conventions’
Printed Textiles & Surface Pattern Design Our aim is to provide an environment which allows you to discover, develop, and express your personal creative identity through your work’ ‘Level one studies concentrate on ‘… experimentation’
Interior Design ‘We encourage students to challenge conventional thinking ’
Furniture ‘Throughout the course you will be encouraged to form a personal vision and direction based upon critical self –analysis’
Fashion/Clothing We encourage you to develop your individual creativity to the highest level . . . ‘Level one studies concentrate on . . . .experimentation’
Art and Design (Interdisciplinary) ‘What will unite all your creative output will be the ability to apply your creative and technical skills in innovative ways, which are not limited to traditional subject boundaries’
LCAD quotes prioritise certain concepts:(feel free to question these) 1.
Innovation [creating new stuff]
2.
Experimentation [process involved in order to achieve new stuff]
3.
Originality [to copy is bad, to be original is good]
4.
Creative genius [to bring out a hidden creative depth held deep within the student]
Art for Art’s Sake
Whistler Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875)
End of the 19th /early 20th C two approaches to avant-garde art 1.
2.
art that is socially committed [artists being the ‘avant-garde’ of society, pushing forward political objectives] art that seeks only to expand / progress what art is (in itself and for itself) / art for art’s sake
Art for Art’s Sake James Abbot McNeill Whistler
Nocturne in Black and Gold (1874-78)
Clive Bell
Significant form The relations and combinations of lines and colours, which when organised give the power to move someone aesthetically.
Cezanne Mount St. Victoire (1900)
The “Art for Art’s sake” approach dominated much thinking and practice in 20thC art
Clement Greenberg
Pollock Lavender Mist (1950)
A major problem for the avant-garde is that it seems to necessitate ‘ELITISM’ So for those members of the ‘left wing’ [interested in social change] there was a tendency to have to rely on ACADEMIC TECHNIQUES in order to appeal to the ‘public’.
What is Kitsch?
Constable Haywain (1821) [Not Kitsch]
Constable Kitsch?
Definitely kitsch!
Jumping across media
Durer Praying Hands (1508)
Simplification of style – repainted masterpieces for the modern eye
Commemoration
(Animal Themes) This is true kitsch as it aims to be taken seriously as fine art!
Jeff Koons Michael Jackson & Bubbles the Monkey (1988)
Toulouse Lautrec
Warhol
Thomas Kinkade
Carl Andre ‘Equivalent VIII’
K-Foundation award, 1994
Damien Hirst (2007) ‘For the Love Of God’
Adbusters
Awkward questions to ask your tutors 1. Why does our work have to be ‘original’? ●2. Is it possible to be ‘avant-garde’ and/or ‘original’? ●3. If I make my work socially committed so that people can understand it can it still be avant-garde / innovative? ●