The Importance of the Art Vanguards

While roaming the halls of Washington DC's National Art Gallery in October 2017, I heard someone say something that really stood out to me. There were two special exhibitions on display—one of them was called Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures. The other was titled Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry. Both exhibitions fall under that mythical time of the 14th and 18th centuries, so naturally, they attracted a huge turnout (for people remotely interested in Art). 

I was standing in line to enter the exhibition room for the Vermeer exhibition and heard some say the phrase: "They just don't make them like they used to, don't they?" At the time, I didn't say anything, but it obviously bothered me enough that it stuck with me all these years later. I keep coming back to the topic of mimesis as a benchmark for quality, and I always come to the same conclusion. Why do we treat adhering to mimesis as the end all be all for quality Art? Once I go down that rabbit hole, I'm confronted with another question: Why are we so obsessed with ensuring that our Art captures real-life as seamlessly as possible?

This is by no means a modern concept. Whenever I start thinking about mimesis, I'm reminded of the story of Zeuxis and Parrhasius. They were ancient Greek painters and rivals who practiced "shadow painting ." They found themselves embroiled in a competition to see who could create a painting so life-like that it could fool one another. While Zeuxis was able to trick a bird with his still life of grapes, Parrhasius tricked Zeuxis with his painting of a curtain. Safe to say, the obsession runs deep.

So, Why Do the Art Vanguards Matter?

Having said all that, what makes the Art Vanguards so special?

First off, I think the exploration of Art beyond imitating life opens up so many avenues of what can be considered Art. Ready-mades, graphic novels, and so much more!

Secondly, I think it starts to break down Art History's infatuation with European Art. Asian, African, and Latin American Art don't always strive to look as if they were plucked from our reality. Not every culture wants to explore those topics or even finds that aesthetic enthralling—and that's ok! Having Art that looks vastly different, with different topics, techniques and styles is truly the spice of life.  

The Art Vanguards helped to broaden our horizons beyond the whitewashing of Western Civilization. That said, there's still such a long way to go (as discussed in this blog post), but it's a start.

Finally, The Art Vanguards democratized Art (or attempted to, at least!) The idea of exploring the boundaries of what can be considered Art opens the door for anyone and everyone to give it a try. While this doesn't work as well in practice as it does in theory, I think it's important to mention and ESSENTIAL to future Art Theory. As Art professionals, we need to push the boundaries further and create spaces so people from all walks of life can create the type of Art that speaks to them.

In Conclusion

While I think that the Art Vanguards have become sort of a meme at this point, I believe that it's a massive disservice to the Art community as a whole. It opened up the discipline to all types of artists who wanted to explore Art in different ways, cover various topics and explore different aesthetics. The world isn't monochromatic, it's a complex tapestry of stunning color and diversity, and it's high time that we embraced that!