avant-gardes
Cultural boundary pushers
Avant-gardes is the plural of avant-garde, referring to multiple experimental or innovative movements, groups, or individuals in art, music, literature, or culture: The European avant-gardes of the early twentieth century transformed painting.
The term can distinguish separate movements: Surrealism and Dadaism were distinct avant-gardes with overlapping membership.
Preference for untried approaches
- modernismFavoring contemporary approaches
- surrealismIrrational, dreamlike aesthetic
- dadaismAbsurdist artistic movement
- cubismGeometric, fragmented visual style
futurism · abstraction · expressionism · minimalism · conceptualism · manifestos · provocateurs · radicals
Rejection of mainstream values
- bohemiansUnconventional artistic types
- movementsChanges in position
- scenesDivisions within acts
- collectivesGroups acting unitedly
salons · circles · coteries · tastemakers · trendsetters · intelligentsia · literati · cognoscenti
Leads or initiates
- scoutsInformation gatherers ahead
- reconnaissanceInformation-gathering before action
- frontlineCombat's forward position
- shock troopsElite offensive combat unit
pathfinders · point men · expeditionary · flankers · outriders · trailbreakers · pioneers · forerunners
experimentalism
Preference for untried approaches
- modernismFavoring contemporary approaches
- surrealismIrrational, dreamlike aesthetic
- dadaismAbsurdist artistic movement
cubism · futurism · abstraction · expressionism · minimalism · conceptualism · manifestos · provocateurs · radicals · innovators
counterculture
Rejection of mainstream values
collectives · salons · circles · coteries · tastemakers · trendsetters · intelligentsia · literati · cognoscenti · progressives
spearheads
Leads or initiates
- scoutsInformation gatherers ahead
- reconnaissanceInformation-gathering before action
- frontlineCombat's forward position
shock troops · pathfinders · point men · expeditionary · flankers · outriders · trailbreakers · pioneers · forerunners · skirmishers
avant-gardestraditionalists
Upholders of established customs
conservatives · conventionalists · classicists · old guard · establishment
avant-gardesrearguards
Units defending from behind
laggards · followers · latecomers · stragglers · rear guard
avant-gardesmainstream
Dominant cultural current
populists · middlebrow · mass culture · bourgeoisie · philistines