Live Avant Garde

Avant Garde is defined as people or works that are experimental, radical, or unorthodox, with respect to art, culture, and society.

I've always been very interested in this aspect of art called avant garde; it's incredibly exciting to have no rules or boundaries to what you can create. With no defining limits, the style goes beyond abstract and into something that can't necessarily be defined because it is always changing- always something new. This concept, when applied to life itself is somewhat revolutionary in that it can free our minds of the shackles that society places on us- putting us into categories and telling us how to dress, think and feel. If we "live avant garde"... we don't have to be defined and we don't have to make sense even- we are just free to be who we are and that, I believe is what every person truly yearns for.

I immortalized the phrase "Live Avant Garde" as graphic design on this tank top, to remind myself to stay true to the idea of breaking the mold.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
1907
Picasso
Museum of Modern Art, New York








Some of my favorite Avant Garde artists are Salvador Dali, a prominent Spanish surrealist painter and Pablo Picasso, a Spanish artist who co-founded Cubism and even co-invented Collage. These artists were innovative in their day, experimenting with styles that were revolutionary and even looked down upon by some. What Dali and Picasso did in breaking with traditional art techniques led to them becoming legendary artists which is amazing and something to be respected. Not only was there work subversive but it was incredibly meaningful, moving beyond conventional, classic portraiture and into works of art that had intricate layers of depth and meaning.





The Persistence of Memory
1931
Dali
Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation/Artists Rights Society, New York