Failure Of The Avant-garde

The avant-garde (referred to herein as historical avant-garde) movements were important in the first half of the 20th century which maintained active throughout Europe, and influencial in the world. This thesis attempts to define the failure of the avant-garde on basis of three dimensions known as concept, practice and social conditions. Regarding this as the premise, this thesis then selects political perspective, according to the intimacy between the avant-garde and politics, to locate these three dimensions in a common political context in order to strengthen the inter-relation among them, which is expected to form a systematic failure attribution for the avant-garde. To achieve this goal, the thesis first examines situations of some typical avant-garde art groups in the social and political context of Europe before World War Ⅱ. This leads to the analysis of the whole process in which avant-garde art groups have promoted their concepts and practice under prevailing social conditions-characterized by the formation of mass society and prevalence of radical political parties. Main research approaches on causes of the avant-garde’s failure will then be founded on three dimensions above mentioned under the political perspective. Such causes need to be analyzed:first in concept dimension, it will be the antagonistic relationship between the avant-garde and the society preseted by avant-garde’s nature of de-aestheticized autonomy; second in practice dimension, it will be the divergence and conflict between radical political parties and avant-garde art groups; finally in dimension of social conditions, it will be the incompatibility between the avant-garde and mass society. In doing this, some kind of holistic interpretation is to be outlined regarding with causes of the avant-garde’s failure under the political perspective. Meanwhile, the thesis also analyzes the avant-garde art in China with the same political perspective.