avant garde

Avant garde (abstraction was declared an avant-garde art form in the twentieth century)

Members of the artistic avant garde had to see political developments as a series of deep disappointments. Painters and graphic artists were creating images without any recognizable objects.

"Avant-garde and Kitch", C. Greenberg

Before postmodernism

Avant-garde must seem to become kitsch, kitsch must serve an avant-garde function.

David Kuspit

Death and maiden