Avant-garde art is new, experimental and ahead of what most people are ready for — music without a tune, a canvas painted one flat black, a play in which nothing happens. If the gallery leaves you asking whether it is art at all, you are probably looking at the avant-garde.
It is an adjective (an avant-garde composer) and a noun for the people doing it (the avant-garde of 1920s Paris). The word is French and military: the avant-garde was the advance guard, the soldiers sent ahead of the army, and it keeps that sense of being out in front and taking the fire. It dates quickly by nature — the avant-garde of one generation hangs in the museums of the next.
1adjectiveavant-gardeNew and experimental, well ahead of what most people accept.
“The festival is known for avant-garde theatre.”
2noungroupThe artists and thinkers who lead the way with new and experimental ideas.
“In the 1920s Paris was home to the avant-garde.”
Practised in Music, Art & Culture, News & Communication