Revolutions and the Avant-Gardes

Abstract

The author explores the meanings of “revolution” in the last two centuries and points to the ways in which the term was employed in philosophy, sciences, and in relation to avant-garde movements in art. He shows how the paradigmatic and subversive meaning of the term arose soon after the French Revolution and was developed by a series of authors, ranging from Immanuel Kant to André Malraux and recently Jacques Rancière, only to be widely proclaimed as obsolete in the last decade. He then explores various usages of the term “aesthetic revolution” and argues that it can serve a very productive function in determining some of the specifics of the avant-gardes. Then the essential connection between political and social revolution and revolution in art is the revolution in art is demonstrated. In this respect the author agrees with Miklós Szabolcsi, who in 1970s suggested that the two are essentially linked and interdependent, and that one cannot exist without the presence of the other. In the conclusion the author explores ways in which the avant-gardes might reappear.