From experimental short films to radical performance art, avant-garde artistic works have challenged the convention of their day, whether through new techniques or new approaches to subject matter or form. A French term meaning 'advance guard' (the section of an army moving ahead of the rest), 'avant garde' can be used to broadly describe work which was ahead of its time, rather than defining a coherent artistic movement within or across the arts.
Often experimental, many avant-garde works have also had revolutionary connotations, responding to political movements such as socialism, or to cultural shifts such as in the aftermath of war, always with originality and sometimes accompanied by controversy.
Within art, avant-garde works fed into the development of various modern art movements from the nineteenth century onwards, ranging from surrealism through to video art. Within music, composers from Igor Stravinsky to Phillip Glass and jazz artists such as Miles Davis produced pieces which rejected traditional forms within their fields. Filmmakers such as Agnes Varda and the directors of the French New Wave revolutionised cinema, reworking genres and playing with forms and narratives. Avant-garde artists such as Kazimir Malevich and art/architectural movements such as the Bauhaus would influence the radical work of 21st century architects such as Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid.
As well as innovating within particular fields, some avant-garde artists have worked across multiple artistic forms to produce extraordinary pieces. Ukrainian-American Maya Deren, for example, was not only a radical 1940s and 50s filmmaker but an innovative dancer, choreographer, photographer, poet and writer, and has been credited with launching the avant-garde movement in the United States. Japanese artists such as Takahiko Iimura produced pioneering experimental films in the 1960s and later went on to create innovative video art.
By its nature, the avant-garde shifts, as what were once new forms may become absorbed into the mainstream; yet the work of trailblazing artists of previous decades can still form a rich source of inspiration for the avant-garde of today.