Early Modernism and the Avant-Garde

Early modernism's avant-garde movements, from Fauvism and Cubism to Futurism and Expressionism, radically broke with representation and the institutions of art in the early 20th century.

Definition

The pioneering modern movements of the early 20th century that dismantled traditional representation and challenged the institutions and social role of art.

Scope

This topic studies the European avant-gardes of roughly 1905 to 1930, including Fauvism, the Cubism of Picasso and Braque, Italian Futurism, German Expressionism, and the constructivist and abstract currents, together with the manifestos and theories that proclaimed art's transformation and its engagement with modern life and technology.

Core questions

• How did Cubism break apart the conventions of pictorial representation?
• What did the early avant-gardes claim about art's relation to modern life?
• How did manifestos and collective movements organize early modernism?
• How did the avant-garde challenge the institution of art itself?

Key theories

Theory of the avant-garde

Peter Bürger's argument that the historical avant-garde sought to dissolve the autonomous institution of art and reintegrate art into life praxis, distinguishing it from mere stylistic modernism.

Cubist deconstruction of representation

The account of Analytic and Synthetic Cubism as a systematic fracturing of single-viewpoint perspective, introducing multiple views, collage, and the autonomy of the picture surface.

History

The early avant-gardes were accompanied by an explosion of manifestos and theoretical writing, anthologized in works such as Art in Theory. Later critical accounts, from Peter Bürger's theory of the avant-garde to the October-circle survey Art Since 1900, debate the movements' aims and their relation to the institution of art.

Debates

Avant-garde versus modernism

Following Bürger, scholars debate whether the avant-garde's attack on the institution of art is distinct from, or continuous with, the formal innovations of modernism more broadly.

Key figures

• Peter Bürger
• Rosalind Krauss
• Yve-Alain Bois

Seminal works

• burger1984
• fosteretal2016
• harrisonwood2002

Frequently asked questions

What is the avant-garde?

The term refers to artists and movements seen as ahead of their time, breaking radically with established conventions and often with the social role of art.

What did Cubism change?

Cubism abandoned single-viewpoint perspective, fragmenting objects into multiple facets and helping open the path to abstraction.