Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde

Apstrakt: Tekst analizira fenomen savremene umetnosti. Osnovna teza jeste da je savremena umetnost jedan od žanrova unutar istorije zapadne umetnosti koji je artikulisan tokom šezdesetih godina 20. veka. Osnova ovog žanra jeste zaokret od kategorije umetničkog dela ka kategoriji umetničkog predmeta, pri čemu se prethodnice ovog zaokreta mogu pro-naći u nasleđu istorijskih avangardi, pre svega Dišanovom redimejdu. Tekst analizira epistemološke (uspon teorije na mestu umetničke kritike, istorije umetnosti i estetike), institucionalne (format kustoske izložbe, a potom i globalni art sistem bijenala i umetničkih sajmova) i aksiološke (transgresija na mestu estetske vrednosti) aspekte ovog žanra. Ključne reči: žanr, savremena umetnost, epistemologija, institucija, aksi-ologija, estetska vrednost, transgresija.

While not underestimating the ambivalence that the question ‘what is the avant-garde’ still has in the arts and the literary field today, if it is a historic category or an ongoing project, and if so, what defines this project, a respective straightforward inquiry did not yet amply preoccupy the architectural field. Even so, the sixties mark a shift. It is this decade when the term ‘avant-garde’ begins describing buildings, architects and diverse productions of the latter, correlating with the study of the reciprocal relation between architecture and the avant-garde.

Josef Albers remained at Black Mountain College for less than a year after Robert Rauschenberg had enrolled in the fall of 1948. Despite this short overlap in time, Albers’ influence upon his student is well acknowledged, perhaps most adamantly by Rauschenberg himself, who considered Albers his “most important teacher.” Many accounts of their relationship highlight its significance to Rauschenberg's monochromes and Combines during the 1950s. However, little has been said of Albers’ impact on the blueprint series (1949–51), the first works to win recognition for Rauschenberg and Susan Weil, his partner and peer. The young couple began making the life-size cyanotype photograms the summer after studying with Albers, solidifying the Bauhaus-infused arts education that eventually led Rauschenberg to his famed Combines and later silkscreen works. This chapter demonstrates how the blueprints exemplify Albers’ lauded instructional methods, especially in visual perception, formal composition, and material analysis, all of which stem from the Bauhaus’ artistic and pedagogical practices. Shining new light on the blueprints to illuminate their embodiment of Bauhaus principles strengthens the connection between the work of Albers and Rauschenberg, and, as a result, positions the Bauhaus as a crucial determinant of Rauschenberg's neo-avant-garde practice.

The Avant-Garde in  the Age of TV: "Poetry Debate" of the Literary Group Kontekst
"Spór o poezję" [Poetry Debate, 1977] is a manifesto of the young poets from the Kontekst group. The group consisted of: Włodzimierz Paźniewski (b. 1942), Stanisław Piskor (b. 1944), Tadeusz Sławek (b. 1946), and Andrzej Szuba (b. 1949). Their programme was based on inspirations taken from the artistic avant-garde, the American and English poetry of the time (New York school, pop-poetry), and, in particular, the idea of television moisaic as a new way of perceiving the world, derived from the writings of Marshall McLuhan. However, while creating the neo-avant-garde concept of poetry, the writers from the Kontekst group were not fully consistent. They maintained a clear distinction between the plan of the representation and the artistic structure which was to be its equivalent. In their discussions, they themselves maintained a distinction between  theoretical arguments and the artistic practice, they contrasted innovative art with popular art, etc. Thus, the neo-avant-garde fascinations were put here within the framework of traditional, high-modernist thinking of art.