What makes avant-garde avant-garde?

[Vincent A. Maeder]

What was it my old professor, now sitting in some rocker by the sea
pondering Alzheimerian thoughts, said to me?  If you're looking for the
future of literature, look toward painting and watch it resolve into the
theatre, translate into shorts, and finally crawl into the novel and
die... I think, or was I just possessed of that thought.  Oh well, back
to work.
V.


>>Cyrus wrote: A reason for the apparent death (or near death) of the
avant-garde may be the ever-growing distance between the artist and the
art-consumer (ugly term, please recommend another). In the most part of
the 20th century, art had been "accelerating", constantly seeking new
themes, methods and media. The term "Avant-garde" had meaning back then,
as you've said. But art-consumers haven't been able to follow this
acceleration. Many readers today, all educated people, are  unable to
read many of the names you mention above. Just like many listeners,
including students and graduates of music, are unable to listen to
Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg and Webern (old as they are) , not to
mention Cage, Xenakis, Crumb and Maxwell Davies. My guess is that
artists have been aware of that for some time now, which might explain
the appearance of composers like Arvo Part, Alfred Schnittke, and
others, seeking to expand on earlier forms. Who knows what might come of
it in literature?

Cyrus<<