Tag Archives: avant garde

The legacy of the avant-garde – the essay I didn’t need to write

Posted on 8 January 2018 by beckybendylegs

Is a 21st-century avant-garde possible? Introduction “It is we, artists, that will serve as your avant-garde.” (Rodrigues Olinde, 1825, ‘L’artiste, le savant et l’industriel ‘, quoted in Matei Calinescu Five Faces of Modernity: Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism) In this essay … Continue reading →

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I can’t believe I didn’t write about last year’s Turner Prize

Posted on 3 December 2017 by beckybendylegs

So, let’s just ignore 2016, and jump straight to this year: 2017. Before we jump, however, I will say that all I remember from 2016 is a pair of giant buttocks. I suspect that that magnificent image distracted me from … Continue reading →

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Does InstaFaceTwit make everyone an artist?

Posted on 2 November 2017 by beckybendylegs

Joseph Beuys famously declared on a number of occasions in the 1970s that ‘Every human being is an artist.’  I wonder what he would say in 2017? I think he’d say the same thing. Everyone is an artist. Oh yes … Continue reading →

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The avant garde paradox

Posted on 22 August 2017 by beckybendylegs

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the impossibility of being labelled as ‘avant garde’ in art. I’ve been, very slowly it has to be said, reading Peter Burger’s The Theory of the Avant Garde and despite the challenging language of this book, … Continue reading →

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