Overview

""Art has poisoned our life,"" proclaimed Dutch artist and De Stijl cofounder Theo van Doesburg. Reacting to the tumultuous crises of the twentieth century, especially the horrors of World War I, avant-garde artists and writers sought to destroy art by transforming it into the substance of everyday life. Following the evolution of these revolutionary groups, How to Be Avant-Garde charts its pioneers and radical ideas. From Paris to New York, from Zurich to Moscow and Berlin, avant-gardists challenged the confines of the definition of art along with the confines of the canvas itself. Art historian Morgan Falconer starts with the dynamic Futurist founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, whose manifesto extolling speed, destruction, and modernity seeded avant-gardes across Europe. In turn, Dadaists Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings sought to replace art with political cabaret, and the Surrealists tried to exchange it for tools to plumb the unconscious. He guides us through the Russian Constructivists with their adventures in advertising and utopianism and then De Stijl with the geometric abstractions of Piet Mondrian. The Bauhaus broke more boundaries, transmuting art into architecture and design. Finally, the Situationists swapped art for politics, with many of their ideas inspiring the 1968 Paris student protests. How to Be Avant-Garde is a journey through the interlocking networks of these richly creative lives with their visions of a better world, their sometimes sympathetic but often strange and turbulent conversations, and their objects and writings that defied categorization.

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9781324051428

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Reviews

""Morgan Falconer is the pitch-perfect cheering but skeptical guide through the intricacies, infighting, backbiting, dead ends, crazy schemes, mad ideas, wild leaps, and triumphs of the avant-garde."" -- Jerry Saltz, Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author of How to Be an Artist ""Chock full of engaging details and anecdotes, Morgan Falconer’s book takes us on a lively romp through many of the locales where twentieth-century vanguard figures sought to create a new relationship between art and life. How to be Avant-Garde should appeal both to those in search of a good read and to those intrigued by the vexing question of what it all meant."" -- Jerrold Seigel, author of Bohemian Paris and The Private Worlds of Marcel Duchamp ""A future classic along the lines of Lipstick Traces, one of those books that anyone hoping to bring true newness into the world will find and pass along like a shibboleth to others seeking the same."" -- Mark Braude, author of KIKI MAN RAY ""What is art for? How to Be Avant-Garde examines what happened when the horrors of World War I made it clear that the traditional answer—that it’s for making rich people’s homes nicer—could no longer apply. Falconer whirls us through the movements that constituted various responses to this question. Maybe art’s time was up? Maybe it should no longer exist at all? Why was art between the wars so vivid and interesting? Read How to Be Avant-Garde and find out."" -- Ruth Brandon, author of Spellbound by Marcel: Duchamp, Love, and Art ""I thoroughly enjoyed this book. How to Be Avant-Garde can take its place alongside such mainstays as Roger Shattuck’s The Banquet Years and Robert Hughes’s The Shock of the New as a lively and thought-provoking survey of the 20th century’s most impactful contribution to cultural life."" -- Mark Polizzotti, author of Why Surrealism Matters

Morgan Falconer is the pitch-perfect cheering but skeptical guide through the intricacies, infighting, backbiting, dead ends, crazy schemes, mad ideas, wild leaps, and triumphs of the avant-garde.--Jerry Saltz, Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author of How to Be an Artist

""A future classic along the lines of Lipstick Traces, one of those books that anyone hoping to bring true newness into the world will find and pass along like a shibboleth to others seeking the same."" -- Mark Braude, author of Kiki Man Ray ""Morgan Falconer is the pitch-perfect cheering but skeptical guide through the intricacies, infighting, backbiting, dead ends, crazy schemes, mad ideas, wild leaps, and triumphs of the avant-garde."" -- Jerry Saltz, Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author of How to Be an Artist ""Chock full of engaging details and anecdotes, Morgan Falconer’s book takes us on a lively romp through many of the locales where twentieth-century vanguard figures sought to create a new relationship between art and life. How to be Avant-Garde should appeal both to those in search of a good read and to those intrigued by the vexing question of what it all meant."" -- Jerrold Seigel, author of Bohemian Paris and The Private Worlds of Marcel Duchamp ""What is art for? How to Be Avant-Garde examines what happened when the horrors of World War I made it clear that the traditional answer?that it’s for making rich people’s homes nicer?could no longer apply. Maybe art’s time was up? Maybe it should no longer exist at all? Why was art between the wars so vivid and interesting? Read How to Be Avant-Garde and find out.”"" -- Ruth Brandon, author of Spellbound by Marcel: Duchamp, Love, and Art ""How to Be Avant-Garde can take its place alongside such mainstays as Roger Shattuck’s The Banquet Years and Robert Hughes’s The Shock of the New as a lively and thought-provoking survey of the twentieth century’s most impactful contribution to cultural life."" -- Mark Polizzotti, author of Why Surrealism Matters

"""Morgan Falconer is the pitch-perfect cheering but skeptical guide through the intricacies, infighting, backbiting, dead ends, crazy schemes, mad ideas, wild leaps, and triumphs of the avant-garde."" -- Jerry Saltz, Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author of How to Be an Artist"

Author Information

Morgan Falconer, a critic and art historian, teaches at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. He is the author of Painting Beyond Pollock and has written for publications including the Times (UK), Frieze, the Economist, and Art in America. He lives in Queens, New York.

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