Overview

An authoritative re-definition of the social, cultural and visual history of the emergence of the “avant-garde” in Paris and London Over the past fifty years, the term ""avant-garde"" has come to shape discussions of European culture and modernity, ubiquitously taken for granted but rarely defined. This ground-breaking book develops an original and searching methodology that fundamentally reconfigures the social, cultural, and visual context of the emergence of the artistic avant-garde in Paris and London before 1915, bringing the material history of its formation into clearer and more detailed focus than ever before.   Drawing on a wealth of disciplinary evidence, from socio-economics to histories of sexuality, bohemia, consumerism, politics, and popular culture, David Cottington explores the different models of cultural collectivity in, and presumed hierarchies between, these two focal cities, while identifying points of ideological influence and difference between them. He reveals the avant-garde to be at once complicit with, resistant to, and a product of the modernizing forces of professionalization, challenging the conventional wisdom on this moment of cultural formation and offering the means to reset the terms of avant-garde studies.

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9780300166736

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Reviews

“If you haven’t any space on your shelves, we suggest making some - and sharpish…Radical Art and the Formation of the Avant-Garde…focuses on a group of people looking forward rather than back. Taking the artistic vanguard as his starting point, author David Cottington looks to two cities - Paris and London - in his exploration of the meaning of modernity and 20th-century European culture.”—Inigo.com   ‘There is no more sophisticated and compelling historian of the avant-garde now at work than David Cottington. This is a sustained, elegant, and erudite account of its subjects, wide-ranging, unfailingly insightful, and certain to be the standard work.’ – David Peters Corbett, The Courtauld Institute of Art ‘A subtle and multifaceted exploration of how early twentieth-century avant-gardes coalesced in the distinctive cultural and political circumstances of pre-World War I London and Paris, Cottington’s wide-ranging book makes a groundbreaking contribution to our understanding of critically important episodes in the history of art.' – Nancy J. Troy, Stanford University ‘Cottington’s new and unparalleled study lays bare the social conditions that led to the rise of the radical artistic avant-garde. A formidable book indispensable to all readers interested in the social history of modern art.’ – Sascha Bru, University of Leuven

If you haven't any space on your shelves, we suggest making some - and sharpish...Radical Art and the Formation of the Avant-Garde...focuses on a group of people looking forward rather than back. Taking the artistic vanguard as his starting point, author David Cottington looks to two cities - Paris and London - in his exploration of the meaning of modernity and 20th-century European culture. -Inigo.com 'There is no more sophisticated and compelling historian of the avant-garde now at work than David Cottington. This is a sustained, elegant, and erudite account of its subjects, wide-ranging, unfailingly insightful, and certain to be the standard work.' - David Peters Corbett, The Courtauld Institute of Art 'A subtle and multifaceted exploration of how early twentieth-century avant-gardes coalesced in the distinctive cultural and political circumstances of pre-World War I London and Paris, Cottington's wide-ranging book makes a groundbreaking contribution to our understanding of critically important episodes in the history of art.' - Nancy J. Troy, Stanford University 'Cottington's new and unparalleled study lays bare the social conditions that led to the rise of the radical artistic avant-garde. A formidable book indispensable to all readers interested in the social history of modern art.' - Sascha Bru, University of Leuven

Author Information

David Cottington is Emeritus Professor of Art History at Kingston University, London.

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