List of avant-garde artists explained
Avant-garde (in French pronounced as /avɑ̃ ɡaʁd/) is French for "vanguard".[1] The term is commonly used in French, English, and German to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art and culture.
Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The notion of the existence of the avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. Postmodernism posits that the age of the constant pushing of boundaries is no longer with us and that avant-garde has little to no applicability in the age of Postmodern art.
Visual artists
Architects
Performance artists
Musicians
- Laurie Anderson (American composer)
- George Antheil (American composer)
- Albert Ayler (Free jazz)[32]
- John Balance (Music Composer, poet)
- The Beatles (English rock lyricists, composers, and singers)[33] [34]
- Luciano Berio (Italian composer)
- Arthur Brown (English rock singer and performer)
- Pierre Boulez (French composer)
- David Bowie (English rock singer and performer)
- Glenn Branca (American guitarist and composer)
- John Zorn (American musician and composer)
- Harold Budd (American composer)
- John Cage (American composer)
- Les Claypool (American musician, singer, bassist, film maker, novelist, composer)
- Ornette Coleman (American jazz musician)
- John Coltrane (American jazz musician)
- Anna Eriksson (Finnish composer)
- Conlon Nancarrow (American composer)
- Tony Conrad (American violinist and composer)
- Ivor Cutler (Scottish avant-musician and poet)
- Miles Davis (American jazz musician)
- Claude Debussy (French composer)[35]
- Eric Dolphy (American jazz musician)
- Duke Ellington (American jazz musician, band leader and composer)
- Don Ellis (American jazz musician, band leader and composer)
- Brian Eno (English musician and composer)
- Aphex Twin (British musician and composer)
- Morton Feldman (American composer)
- Brigitte Fontaine (French Singer, novelist, playwright and actress)
- Aaron Funk (Canadian electronic musician)
- Diamanda Galás (American musician, composer and performance artist)
- Philip Glass (American composer)
- Dave Holland (British jazz musician)
- Charles Ives (American composer)[36]
- Roland Kirk (American jazz musician)
- Bill Laswell (avant-garde musician)
- György Ligeti (Hungarian/Austrian/Romanian composer)
- Witold Lutosławski (Polish composer)
- Béla Bartók (Hungarian composer)
- Lydia Lunch (American singer, poet, writer and actress)
- Angus MacLise (American percussionist)
- Charles Mingus (American jazz musician)
- Thelonious Monk (American jazz musician)
- Max Neuhaus (composer)
- Mike Oldfield (English composer)
- Pauline Oliveros (American composer and accordionist)
- Yoko Ono (Japanese artist and musician)
- Harry Partch (American composer and instrument designer)
- Mike Patton (American musician, singer and composer)
- Krzysztof Penderecki (Polish composer)
- Astor Piazzolla (Argentine nuevo tango pioneer)
- Jarosław Pijarowski (Polish contemporary musician, poet, photographer, creator of fine arts and theatre-music spectacles)
- Sun Ra (Free jazz innovator)
- Steve Reich (American composer)
- Terry Riley (American composer)
- Diana Ringo (Finnish composer)
- Arthur Russell (American musician, singer and composer)
- Pharoah Sanders (American jazz musician)
- Erik Satie (French composer and pianist)
- Janek Schaefer (English composer musician artist)
- Pierre Schaeffer (French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician)
- Arnold Schoenberg (Austrian/American composer)
- Archie Shepp (American jazz musician)
- Karlheinz Stockhausen (German composer)
- Igor Stravinsky (Russian composer)[37]
- David Tudor (American composer)
- Arto Tunçboyacıyan (Armenian vocalist, multiinstrumentalist)
- Edgard Varèse (French composer, later naturalized American citizen)
- David Vorhaus (American electronic composer with the English band White Noise)
- Igor Wakhévitch (French composer)
- Anton Webern (Second Viennese School)
- Robert Wyatt (English singer and songwriter)
- Iannis Xenakis (Greek composer and architect)
- Kathleen Yearwood (Canadian composer)
- La Monte Young (American composer)
- Frank Zappa (American composer, guitarist and satirist)
Authors, playwrights, actors, theatre directors and poets
- JoAnne Akalaitis (writer/director/ Mabou Mines)
- Guillaume Apollinaire (writer)
- Antonin Artaud (French actor, director and theorist)
- H. C. Artmann (Austrian-born poet and writer)
- Hugo Ball (German writer, dadaist)
- J. G. Ballard (British author)
- Georges Bataille (French writer and essayist)
- Julian Beck (actor/director/ The Living Theatre)
- Samuel Beckett (Irish playwright)
- Maurice Blanchot (French writer and essayist)
- Jorge Luis Borges (Argentine short story writer)
- André Breton (French author)
- Hermann Broch (Austrian writer)[39]
- Christine Brooke-Rose (British writer and literary critic)
- William S. Burroughs (author, poet, essayist)
- Jim Carroll (avant-garde poet)
- Louis-Ferdinand Céline (author)
- Gregory Corso (experimental Beat poet)
- Jayne Cortez (American poet and spoken-word artist)
- E. E. Cummings (poet)
- Jeffrey Daniels (American Poet)
- Guy Debord (French author, and philosopher)
- John Dos Passos (American writer)
- Duncan Fallowell (English writer)
- Benjamin Fondane (Romanian/French poet, critic, existentialist philosopher)
- Richard Foreman (American Director/designer/playwright/compositional theater maker)
- Genpei Akasegawa (Japanese artist and novelist)
- Allen Ginsberg (poet)
- Witold Gombrowicz (writer)
- Eugen Gomringer (the father of concrete poetry)
- Jerzy Grotowski (director)
- Stewart Home (writer)
- Per Højholt (Danish poet)
- Ernst Jandl (Austrian writer, poet, and translator)
- Alfred Jarry (writer)
- James Joyce (writer)
- Franz Kafka (writer)
- Tadeusz Kantor (director)
- Lajos Kassák (1887–1967, Hungarian avant-garde poet and painter)
- Srečko Kosovel (Slovene poet)
- Peter Laugesen (Danish poet)
- Jackson Mac Low, American poet
- Mina Loy (British painter/poet)
- Dimitris Lyacos (writer/playwright/poet)
- Judith Malina (actor/director/ The Living Theatre)
- Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (founder of Italian futurism)
- Vladimir Mayakovsky (Russian futurist writer and poet)
- Vsevolod Meyerhold (director)
- Henry Miller (author)
- Ion Minulescu (Romanian poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, playwright)
- Yukio Mishima (writer, playwright, poet)
- Vladimir Nabokov (Russian author)
- Anaïs Nin (French diarist, author, poet)
- Ezra Pound (American poet)
- Alain Robbe-Grillet (French author, playwright, filmmaker)
- Raymond Roussel (writer)
- Bruno Schulz (writer)
- Kirill Serebrennikov (Russian theater director)
- Gertrude Stein (author, essayist)
- Ellen Stewart (theater director/ La MaMa)
- Jean Tardieu (artist, playwright, poet)
- Sergei Tretyakov (Russian writer)
- Tristan Tzara (Romanian poet)
- Urmuz (Romanian writer)
- Ilarie Voronca (Romanian poet, essayist)
- William Carlos Williams (American poet)
- Miroslav Wanek (Czech composer, poet, singer)
- Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (writer)
- Robert Wilson (director)
- Virginia Woolf (English author)
See also: List of 20th-century writers.
Photographers, filmmakers, video artists
- John Abraham (Indian movie director)
- Kenneth Anger (American filmmaker)
- Diane Arbus (American photographer)
- Berenice Abbott (American photographer)
- Bruce Baillie (American filmmaker)
- Craig Baldwin (American filmmaker)
- Matthew Barney (American performance artist, filmmaker, photographer)
- Timur Bekmambetov (Russian filmmaker)
- Jordan Belson (American filmmaker)
- Patrick Bokanowski (French filmmaker)
- Stan Brakhage (American filmmaker)
- Luis Buñuel (Spanish filmmaker)
- John Cassavetes (American filmmaker)
- Věra Chytilová (Czech filmmaker)
- Jean Cocteau (French poet, artist, filmmaker)
- Bruce Conner (American filmmaker, sculptor, and painter)
- Tony Conrad (American video artist, experimental filmmaker)
- David Cronenberg (American filmmaker)
- Maya Deren (American filmmaker)
- Nathaniel Dorsky (American filmmaker)
- Germaine Dulac (French filmmaker)
- Anna Eriksson (Finnish filmmaker)
- Harun Farocki (German filmmaker)
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder (German filmmaker)
- David Gatten (American filmmaker)
- Ernie Gehr (American filmmaker)
- Jean-Luc Godard (French filmmaker)
- Larry Gottheim (American filmmaker)
- Philippe Grandrieux (French filmmaker)
- Jerome Hiler (American filmmaker)
- Peter Hutton (American filmmaker)
- Ken Jacobs (American filmmaker)
- Alejandro Jodorowsky (Chilean director)
- Mary Jordan (American filmmaker, performance artist, activist)
- Jaromil Jireš (Czechoslovak filmmaker)
- Harmony Korine (American filmmaker)
- Kurt Kren (Austrian filmmaker)
- Stanley Kubrick (American filmmaker)
- Peter Kubelka (Austrian filmmaker)
- Jørgen Leth (Danish filmmaker)
- Len Lye (New Zealand filmmaker)
- David Lynch (American filmmaker)
- Jodie Mack (American filmmaker)
- Christopher Maclaine (American filmmaker)
- Robert Mapplethorpe (American photographer)
- Toshio Matsumoto (Japanese experimental filmmaker‚ video artist)
- Jonas Mekas (Lithuanian-American filmmaker)
- Otto Muehl (Austrian filmmaker)
- Dudley Murphy (Experimental filmmaker)
- Ryūtarō Nakamura (Japanese director and animator)
- Gunvor Nelson (Swedish filmmaker)
- Nikos Nikolaidis (Greek filmmaker)
- Andrew Noren (American filmmaker)
- Mamoru Oshii (Japanese filmmaker)
- Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italian filmmaker, poet and writer)
- Simone Rapisarda Casanova (Italian filmmaker)
- Man Ray (American/French, photographer and filmmaker)
- Alain Resnais (French filmmaker)
- Diana Ringo (Finnish filmmaker)
- Jacques Rivette (French filmmaker)
- Jean Rouch (Ethnographic filmmaker)
- Rudolf Schwarzkogler (Austrian filmmaker)
- Kirill Serebrennikov (Russian filmmaker)
- Jack Smith (American filmmaker)
- Michael Snow (Canadian artist, filmmaker)
- Sion Sono (Japanese filmmaker, dramatist and poet)
- Straub–Huillet (French filmmakers)
- Phil Solomon (American filmmaker)
- Léopold Survage (French artist of Russian-Danish-Finnish descent)
- Shūji Terayama (Japanese dramatist, filmmaker, poet and writer)
- Lars von Trier (Danish filmmaker)
- Andy Warhol (American artist)
- Peter Weibel (Austrian filmmaker)
- Joel-Peter Witkin (American photographer)
- Fred Worden (American filmmaker)
- Kansuke Yamamoto (Japanese photographer and poet)
- Thierry Zéno (Belgian filmmaker)
Dancers and choreographers
- Pina Bausch (German dancer, choreographer)
- Trisha Brown (American dancer, choreographer)
- Lucinda Childs (American dancer, choreographer)
- Merce Cunningham (American dancer, choreographer)
- Isadora Duncan (pioneer of modern dance)
- Loie Fuller (pioneer of modern dance)
- Valeska Gert (1892–1978) (German dancer)[40]
- Martha Graham (American dancer, choreographer)
- Sally Gross (American dancer, choreographer)
- Deborah Hay (American dancer, choreographer)
- Anna Halprin (American dancer, choreographer)
- Erick Hawkins (American dancer, choreographer)
- Hanya Holm (pioneer of modern dance)
- Doris Humphrey (pioneer of modern dance)
- Léonide Massine (pioneer of modern dance)
- Vaslav Nijinsky (pioneer of modern dance)
- Alwin Nikolais (American dancer, choreographer)
- Yvonne Rainer (American dancer, choreographer)
- Ruth St. Denis (pioneer of modern dance)
- Ted Shawn (pioneer of modern dance)
- Anna Sokolow (American dancer, choreographer)
- Helen Tamiris (pioneer of modern dance)
- Twyla Tharp (American choreographer, dancer)
- Charles Weidman (pioneer of modern dance)
- Mary Wigman (German dancer, choreographer)
Others
See also
Further reading
- Brakhage, Stan. Film at Wit's End – Essays on American Independent Filmmakers. (Edinburgh, Polygon. 1989)
- Brakhage, Stan. Essential Brakhage – Selected Writings on Filmmaking. (New York, McPherson. 2001)
- Cage, John. 1961. Silence: Lectures and Writings. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. Unaltered reprints: Wesleyan University press, 1966 (pbk), 1967 (cloth), 1973 (pbk ["First Wesleyan paperback edition"]), 1975 (unknown binding); Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971; London: Calder & Boyars, 1968, 1971, 1973 (cloth) (pbk). London: Marion Boyars, 1986, 1999 (pbk); [n.p.]: Reprint Services Corporation, 1988 (cloth) [In particular the essays "Experimental Music", pp. 7–12, and "Experimental Music: Doctrine", pp. 13–17.]
- Cope, David. 1997. Techniques of the Contemporary Composer. New York, New York: Schirmer Books. .
- Curtis, David. Experimental Cinema – A Fifty Year Evolution. (London. Studio Vista. 1971)
- Curtis, David (ed.) A Directory of British Film and Video Artists (Arts Council, 1999).
- Dixon, Wheeler Winston, The Exploding Eye: A Re-Visionary History of 1960s American Experimental Cinema. (Albany, New York. State University of New York Press, 1997)
- Dixon, Wheeler Winston and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (eds.) Experimental Cinema – The Film Reader, (London: Routledge, 2002)
- Jachec, Nancy. The Philosophy and Politics of Abstract Expressionism 1940–1960 Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2000
- Le Grice, Malcolm, Abstract Film and Beyond (MIT, 1977).
- MacDonald, Scott. A Critical Cinema, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988, 1992 and 1998).
- MacDonald, Scott. Avant-Garde Film: Motion Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
- Mauceri, Frank X. 1997. "From Experimental Music to Musical Experiment". Perspectives of New Music 35, no. 1 (Winter): 187–204.
- Meyer, Leonard B. 1994. Music, the Arts, and Ideas: Patterns and Predictions in Twentieth-Century Culture. 2nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Nicholls, David. 1998. "Avant-garde and Experimental Music." In Cambridge History of American Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Nyman, Michael. 1974. Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. New York: Schirmer. . 2nd edition, Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
- O'Connor, Francis V. Jackson Pollock [exhibition catalogue] (New York, Museum of Modern Art, [1967])
- O'Pray, Michael. Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes and Passions (London: Wallflower Press, 2003).
- Peterson, James. Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order: Understanding the American Avant-Garde Cinema (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994).
- Rees, A. L., A History of Experimental Film and Video (British Film Institute, 1999).
- Sargeant, Jack, (Creation, 1997).
- Saunders, Frances Stonor, The cultural cold war: the CIA and the world of arts and letters (New York: New Press: Distributed by W.W. Norton & Co., 2000)
- Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974).
- Tapié, Michel. Pollock (Paris, P. Facchetti, 1952)
- Tapié, Michel. Hans Hofmann: peintures 1962 : 23 avril – 18 mai 1963. (Paris: Galerie Anderson-Mayer, 1963.) [exhibition catalogue and commentary]
- Tyler, Parker, Underground Film: A Critical History. (New York: Grove Press, 1969)
- Book: Wechsler, Jeffrey . Pathways and Parallels: Roads to Abstract Expressionism . New York . Hollis Taggart Galleries . 2007 . 978-0-9759954-9-5. none.
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Avant-garde definitions. 2007-03-14. Dictionary.com.
- See Claudia Schmuckli: "Chronology and Selected Exhibition History", in Joseph Beuys: Actions, Vitrines, Environments (Tate, 2005).
- http://www.brain-juice.com/cgi-bin/show_bio.cgi?p_id=108 "Constantin Brancusi"
- http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/braque_georges.html Artcyclopedia
- Giorgio de Chirico in the Museum of Modern Art
- Web site: Art Term: De Stijl . 15 January 2022. Tate.
- Book: Curl, James Stevens. James Stevens Curl. A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. registration. 2006. 2nd. Oxford University Press. 0-19-860678-8.
- https://www.moma.org/artists/1633 "Jean Dubuffet"
- [Calvin Tomkins]
- https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/14/naum-gabo-as-a-soviet-emigre-in-berlin "Naum Gabo as a Soviet Émigré in Berlin"
- Web site: Paul Gauguin. MoMA.
- Book: Lord, James. James Lord (author). 1985. Giacometti: A Biography. registration. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 978-0374525255.
- http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_55.html Guggenheim Museum biography
- Hajo Düchting. Wassily Kandinsky 1866–1944: A Revolution in Painting. (Taschen, 2000).
- News: Cotter . Holland. Holland Cotter . November 19, 1999 . Art in Review; Allan Kaprow and Robert Watts – 'Experiments in the Everyday' . . 2008-04-29 .
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Willem-de-Kooning "Willem de Kooning"
- Book: Mayakovsky. Vladimir. Vladimir Mayakovsky. Lissitzky. El. El Lissitzky. For the Voice. translation of для голоса (Dlia golosa). MIT Press. 2000. 0-262-13377-6.
- Web site: Guggenheim: Kazimir Malevich . 2008-05-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080512033331/http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_94.html . 2008-05-12 . dead .
- Web site: The Collection | MoMA.
- [Hilary Spurling]
- Hans Locher: Piet Mondrian. Colour, Structure, and Symbolism. Bern-Berlin: Verlag Gachnang & Springer, 1994.
- http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag01/julaug01/moore/moore.shtml Review in Sculpture Magazine
- Barnett Newman Selected Writings and Interviews, (ed.) by John P. O'Neill, University of California Press, 1990.
- Roxana Robinson. 1990. Georgia O'Keeffe: A life. Bloomsbury, London.
- http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_121.html Oldenburg Biography at the Guggenheim Museum
- Piper, David. The Illustrated History of Art,, p460-461.
- News: Rauschenberg's Signature on the Century . . 28 November 1997 . Marlena . Donohue . Rauschenberg's mammoth career retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (and other New York sites) from Sept. 19 to Jan. 7, 1998... along with longtime friends pre-Pop painter Jasper Johns and the late conceptual composer John Cage, Rauschenberg pretty much defined the technical and philosophic art landscape and its offshoots after Abstract Expressionism. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060707213354/http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1997/11/28/feat/arts.1.html . 7 July 2006.
- http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_133A.html Ad Reinhardt bio at Guggenheim Museum site
- http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_148.html Frank Stella Biography, Guggenheim Museum
- https://archive.today/20120530142236/http://www.museenkoeln.de/homepage/bild-der-woche.asp?bdw=1997_18 Wolf Vostell at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne
- http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A6246&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1 Andy Warhol at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/albert-ayler-p6036/biography Albert Ayler Biography at AllMusic
- Web site: The Beatles: How the White Album Changed Everything. 24 September 2018.
- Web site: Five Main Characters: An Overview of the Beatles and the Avant-Garde.
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/claude-debussy-q7223 Information about Claude Debussy
- http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/ives.php Charles Ives at Classical Net
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/igor-stravinsky-q8016/biography Stravinsky bio at Allmusic
- Web site: Meshuggah . . 2008-06-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080510084617/http://www.nuclearblastusa.com/bands/meshuggah.html . 2008-05-10 . dead.
- Kaszynski, Stefan H. (2012): Kurze Geschichte der Österreichischen Literatur; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, p. 151
- https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/forgotten-world-of-valeska-gert "The Forgotten World of the Badass Valeska Gert"