Avant-garde 前卫

From ArtSpeak China (ASC) Wiki

Avant-garde is a descriptor originally applied to innovative French art of the mid-19th century. It has since come to be synonymous with radically original modern art and has been widely used in connection with contemporary Chinese art of the past 25 years. Signifying an embrace of Western art forms, rejection of Socialist-Realism, and utilization of an international art "language" that makes it comprehensible on a global stage, avant-garde is also a noun referring to those who produce such art.  
Meanings Avant-garde originates from the military term meaning "Advance guard." This reference to "looking forward" suggested a rejection of the authority of the past in favor of the present, that is the emerging modernity sweeping a rapidly industrializing Europe. It also implied the popularly-accepted idea of an artist being ahead of his time, while art historians reject the very possibility of any individual acting outside of history, independent of the constraints of a particular historical moment and milieu.


Origins & History
Avant-garde came to be applied to the visual arts in mid-19th century Paris, when artists such as Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet vociferously rejected painting historical events in favor of depicting contemporary life. Such a departure from accepted practice also cut them off from official support, that is, the patronage of church and state. This rejection of conventional sources of income and a shift in identity from servant of powerful interests to independent appraiser and social commentator, embodied a radical transformation of the economy and purpose sof art itself.
Virtually all modern artists pioneering new artistic approaches during the next century would be described as avant-garde. With the term, came the badge of honor--the "starving artist" marching only to his own radical beat. The term lost its currency when modernism itself flagged during the third quarter of the twentieth century. The post-modern rejection of progress in art, marked by fast-changing stylistic "isms," fatally undermined the bedrock idea of modern, avant-garde originality.


Significance
By contrast, the radical transformation of the economy and purposes of art that accompanied the liberalization of the Chinese economy in the 1980s fostered historical circumstances not unlike those of early modern Paris. Instead of state support, artists sought financial support in the artworld's international marketplace. Instead of the prescribed artistic approach of Socialist Realism, artists have grown increasingly free to pursue artistic approaches from oil painting and traditional ink painting, to video and performance art, and thematic content as varied as can be imagined.

Probably not coincidentally, the most contentious and notorious exhibition in PRC history was the large China/Avant-Garde show at Beijing's National Gallery, which opened and closed, and opened and closed again, in February 1989. In retrospect it seems an emblem of the near-opening of the PRC to the liberal exchange of ideas, as well as commerce.


References
Robert Atkins, ArtSpeak: A Guide to Contemporary Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1945 to the Present.