avant garde
Artistically ahead today
Avant garde describes art, ideas, or people that are experimental and ahead of their time—pushing boundaries before the mainstream catches up.
From French military terminology for the advance unit of an army, it now applies to innovative movements in art, music, literature, and culture: avant garde cinema, an avant garde composer.
Often hyphenated as avant-garde, especially as an adjective.
The avant garde, as a noun, refers collectively to such innovators.
- CountercultureSixties antiestablishment social upheaval
- new waveEmerging trend or movement
- SurrealismArt movement exploring dreams
- found objectRepurposed everyday item as art
- PostmodernismMovement questioning objective truth
experimental art · Cubism · Futurism · art movement · Underground · cutting edge · Bauhaus · Existentialism · Dadaism · Abstract Expressionism · shock value · free form · Pioneer · Minimalism · high concept · Utopianism · Nihilism · Progressivism
- statement fashionbold colors, bold prints, statement pieces, statement jewelry, maximalist
- indie filmindie films, indie film, independent, low budget, independent film
- old vs newclassic, contemporary, old school, new school, vintage
avant gardetraditional
Following long-held customs
conventional · conservative · classical · old-fashioned · traditionalist
avant gardemainstream
Dominant cultural current
conventional · commercial · mass-market · middlebrow · popular
avant, vanguard, guard, guardian, guardianship, guarding, guarded, guards, advance