AVANT-GARDE, DARE TO BE THE NEXT
- by Steven Gutierrez
- Jan 26, 2017
- 2 min read
The avant-garde raises the bar and strays from what is accepted as normal or the status quo. It may be characterized by nontraditional, and aesthetic innovation. Consequently, anything unfamiliar has the potential to draw initial unacceptability by the masses. The people or works that are experimental, radical, or unorthodox are characterized as an avant-garde movement. Perhaps once in a generation, someone challenges the thinking of the majority, resulting in a new path of artistic thinking.
MoMA’s chief curator of painting and sculpture, Ann Temkin said this about Jean-Michel Basquiat in regard to his new style of art, “When you first see brand-new work, chances are if it’s really significant it will be uncomfortable to somebody like myself because I am so immersed in what painting up until now looked like. And with Basquiat many art professionals had skepticism about what he was doing because the paintings didn’t necessarily fit their idea about museum painting, and yet, of course, that’s exactly what’s necessary in order to create the art of the future.”
I have often heard people say, “everything has already been done,” in reference to the various genres of art. My response to that statement is, “everything that has been done is done.” The sum of the opportunity to create is greater than the product of explored ideas and itself. There is an analogues relationship between the unknown certainty of time and the variable of future artists. I think it’s tragic that many ideas are taken to the grave. Many artists lack the courage to explore new concepts in fear that their work won’t be accepted. Thus preventing a new species of art to exist.
How does one begin a new genre of art? Answer: Unlearning what you’ve learned. An artist is a creator, not a re-creator. Close your eyes and visit that place that only you can visit. Capture a mental image and apply it to your work. There is a tremendous opportunity to give the world something new. Something it hasn’t seen before. Perhaps not everyone is concerned with the notion of being an Avant-garde. Not every artist is prepared to declare their place in Art History, and that’s okay.
There are a billion abstract painters in the world and they all think they’re brilliant. There are only a handful of artists who dare to explore a new idea. Avant-garde, now there’s a word with prestige.
I’m Steven Gutierrez and I’m the founder of Anti-Orthoism.
