SHORT ESSAY

Youmna Adnan

a) Au Bon Marche 1913 by Pablo Picasso.

The word "avant-garde" (from the French meaning "ahead of the curve") has long been used in
fine art to designate any artist, group, or style that is deemed to be far ahead of the curve in
terms of technique, subject matter, or application. To put it another way, being avant-garde is
experimenting with new techniques or researching new artistic processes in order to create
better work.In this sense, the origins of avant-garde art are also the origins of the modern
concept of an 'art movement.' 1 Henri de Saint-Simon, a French political writer, is said to have
coined the phrase for visual art in the early nineteenth century, claiming that artists were the
forerunners in the overall trend of social advancement, ahead of scientists and other classes.
However, since the early twentieth century, the term has been associated with radicalism, with
the implication that to be truly avant-garde, artists must challenge the artistic status quo - that is,
its aesthetics, intellectual or artistic conventions, or production methods - to the point of being
almost subversive. Dada (1916-24) is the ultimate example of avant-garde visual art, according
to this perspective, since it questioned most of the principles of Western civilisation. Despite the
ridicule they got from the arts establishment, painters like Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet,
and Camille Pissarro represented a different form of insurgency that would have a lasting impact
on art movements and like-minded artists for the following century and a half.

In this essay, I will argue whether Pablo Picasso's Au Bon Marche (1913), Marcel Duchamp's
The Large Glass or 1915-1923, Vladimir Tatlin's Monument to the Third International 1920, and
Piet Mondrian's Composition with Yellow and White (1932) were more concerned with exploring
art itself than with engaging with the wider modern world.

Marcel Duchamp abandoned traditional painting in the fall of 1912 and set about establishing
new ways of working as an artist. Soon after, he began developing The Large Glass, and in
1915, he began the eight-year process of constructing the massive structure. Author Raymond
Roussel's use of homophones, which are words that sound similar but have various meanings,
inspired The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, or The Large Glass. Duchamp
employed puns and double meanings frequently in his work. He wanted to create an artwork
that could be both visually experienced and "read" like a text with The Large Glass. Images of
an abstracted "bride" being attacked by machine-like entities in chaotic motion were
incorporated in early ideas for this stage, which would have stood more than nine feet tall. The

1
https://magazine.artland.com/avant-garde/
Bride, a machine-insect hybrid, disrobes and emits an amorous aroma in the upper part of the
image. In the lower zone, nine mannequin-like Bachelors are permanently cut off from her, and
they respond by releasing their own sexual gases, which are then processed through a variety
of mechanical mechanisms.2 Duchamp's studies of mathematical physics theories most likely
inspired the built-in gadgetry between the two glass panels. Despite his ardent reluctance to be
connected with any one creative movement, Duchamp's work is associated with the Surrealists
because of his constant obsession with the dynamics of desire and human sexuality, as well as
his passion for wordplay. Due to his stance that art should be motivated by ideas above all else,
Duchamp is usually considered as the founder of Conceptual art. Both Minimalists and
Conceptual artists agreed with Duchamp's assertion that art should be an expression of the
intellect rather than the sight or hand. Duchamp's diversified but restricted output explains for
his expanding impact on succeeding waves of 20th-century avant-garde movements, despite
his work's wide use of creative materials and genres.

Tatlin's Tower, also known as Vladimir Tatlin's Monument to the Third International, is an iconic
piece of Russian contemporary art from the early Soviet era. It was a 20-foot-tall wooden model
of a massive edifice that was never built, in part because post-revolutionary Russia lacked the
necessary material and technological means to complete it properly. As a result, Tatlin's
Monument has historical value in addition to its original purpose and meaning. It is both a
symbol of lofty utopian ambitions and an ironic monument to the early Soviet state's economic
and technological constraints. Tatlin's Monument design expressed significance in a variety of
ways. The ascending spirals, diagonal girder, and spinning interior volumes give symbolic
expression to the international communist revolution's aims and dynamic forces.3 They signified
industry, technology, and the machine era, and the vitality of modernity was reflected by the
unceasing movement of the geometrically oriented pieces. Tatlin’s tower inspired the Soviet
critic Viktor Shklovsky to proclaim: “The monument is made of iron, glass, and revolution.” 4
Tatlin's work represents an important early stage in the transformation of Russian art from
modernist experiment to design. Although a later generation of artists, some of whom put art
aside to produce advertising and propaganda for the state, would achieve this more effectively,

Not just in its materials, but also in its title, Picasso's Au Bon Marché emphasises its modest
cost. Bon marché is the name of a well-known Paris department store as well as a French
phrase that implies "good bargain" or "cheap." As sketched and painted components, a wine
glass on the right and a carafe on the left were also included. Braque and Picasso had been
working for months to broaden Cubism's vocabulary by combining more and more collaged
material from the realms of interior design, print, and publicity.5 Many artists have used the
Cubists' use of inexpensive found materials as a critical method for challenging the commercial

2
https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/54149
3

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/cubism-early-abstraction/russian-avant-garde/a/tatlins-
tower
4

https://www.phillips.com/article/43416956/vladimir-tatlin-monument-to-the-third-international#:~:text=Mon
ument%20to%20commemorate%20the%20Third,taller%20than%20the%20Eiffel%20Tower
5
http://buttes-chaumont.blogspot.com/2012/11/au-bon-marche-with-picasso-1912.html
ideals of the art world and contemporary society, beginning with the Dadaists during World War I
and continuing to the current day. The cerebral attraction of early Cubist collage and papier collé
outweighs the aesthetic appeal. The finished work was completed in the spring of 1913.
Undeterred by the deceptively casual composition and seemingly randomly gathered material,
succeeding generations of hawk-eyed art historians would dig beyond the formal features and
begin finding layers of hidden meaning. The references to the city's most notable department
stores were interpreted by some as an indictment of bourgeois consumer culture, Others were
more taken with the sexual subtext, noticing sneaky allusions to prostitution and female genitalia
- the artist with a dirty mind, as the Catalan collagist is known for.

The appeal of early Cubist collage and papier collé for many individuals is more cerebral than
aesthetic. Rather than exhibiting the sensual characteristics of the painted surface or the artist's
fine touch, these works encourage the observer to enjoy the various allusions and significations
found in the combinations of shapes and clever words. Despite its rather esoteric intellectual
appeal, Cubist collage had a huge impact on modern art in the twentieth century. Its use of
reduced planar shapes aided the development of non-representational art, as seen in
movements like Suprematism, Constructivism, De Stijl, Color Field painting, and Minimalism.
The way the collages blend incongruous found objects, relate to mass consumer culture, and
blur the lines between "low" and "high" culture influenced the development of Dada, Surrealism,
assemblage, Pop art, and other post-modernist themes.

It might be perplexing to look at the Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow. The canvas is tiny,
and the colours used are limited to red, blue, yellow, white, and black. Similarly, the composition
is reduced to its most basic rectilinear shapes, squares and rectangles delineated by vertical
and horizontal lines. It's hard to believe that we're witnessing the artist's attempt to reflect
reality's basic structure. Piet Mondrian wrote, “I wish to approach truth as closely as possible,
and therefore I abstract everything until I arrive at the fundamental quality of objects”. 6 In the
first decade of the twentieth century, Piet Mondrian's style began to evolve. His work begins to
turn toward a pointillist and cubist style, as well as other abstract mediums that he explored with
early in his career. At the period, Dutch artists were becoming more aware of the radical works
of Paul Cezanne and Cubist painters. Mondrian was highly affected by the new art movement
going on in Paris, since he was engaged in avant-garde societies. For the first time in 1911, he
saw Pablo Picasso's early Cubist paintings. One of his works is Composition with Yellow and
White. Its particular freshness continues to enchant art enthusiasts. It's hard to believe we're
witnessing the artist's resolve to portray reality's fundamental structure. After his famous 1917
article supporting abstraction as a way of depicting modern life, Mondrian's approach was
termed Neo-Plasticism, or "The New Plastic Painting." It's important not to misunderstand
Mondrian's use of the term "plastic." 7 Mondrian's art may also indicate his membership in the
Theosophical Society, an esoteric group with a significant presence throughout Europe, by using
opposites such as black and white hues or vertical and horizontal lines to suggest an

6
https://artincontext.org/composition-with-red-blue-and-yellow-piet-mondrian/
7
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/a/mond
rian-composition
evolutionary process. Theosophists were intrigued by opposites as manifestations of underlying
oneness.

Today, the term "avant-garde" refers to a collection of intellectuals, authors, and artists, including
architects, who express ideas and try out new artistic techniques that question established
cultural standards. The avant-garde, especially in the cultural world, challenges what is
considered the standard or status quo. Modernism, according to some, is defined by the
avant-garde. The avant-garde is also a proponent of major social transformations. To
summarize, art has been used to depict the status of our social and political discourse. the
Avant Garde was associated with art because of the belief that art may be utilised to promote
social change. It wasn't until the turn of the century that it began to move away from left-wing
social objectives and toward cultural and aesthetic concerns.
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