“The whole concept of the avant-garde in art is meaningless. I can see what it means when applied to sport, for instance. But to apply it to art would be to accept the idea of progress in art; and though progress has an obvious place in technology — more perfect machines, capable of carrying out their functions better and more accurately — how can anyone be more advanced in art? How could Thomas Mann be said to be better than Shakespeare?”

— Andrei Tarkovsky , book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 97

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Andrei Tarkovsky 55

Soviet and Russian film-maker, writer, film editor, film th… 1932–1986

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“The time has probably come to admit that the notion of an avant-garde is no longer useful in discussing contemporary literature. How can there be an avant-garde without a mainstream? Avant-garde de quoi? one must ask. Establishment institutions — universities, museums, foundations, commercial galleries, even the state — have embraced the idea of experimental art for so long that the avant-garde is now a safely domesticated concept, just another traditional style.”

Dana Gioia (1950) American writer

"Notes Toward a New Bohemia," http://www.danagioia.net/essays/ebohemia.htm transcript of a 1993 talk at the Poet's House, New York City, published in Poetry Flash (November/December 1993) and revised for publication in Grantmakers in the Arts (Spring 1994)
Essays

“There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love. There are simply different ways of doing it.”

Man Ray (1890–1976) American artist and photographer

"To Be Continued, Unnoticed" (1948)

“It should be said that such an art would be neither more false nor more true than classical art.”

Jean Metzinger (1883–1956) French painter

Cubism was born

“[Art is] a means to function thoroughly and passionately in a world that has a lot more to it than paint.”

Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) American artist

Source: 1960's, The Bride and the Bachelors, (1962), p. 3

“I’ve always enjoyed feeling a connection to the avant-garde, such as Dada and surrealism and pop art. The only thing the artist can do is be honest with themselves and make the art they want to make. That’s what I’ve always done.”

Jeff Koons (1955) American artist

Jeff Koons in: Graeme Green. " 60 SECONDS: Jeff Koons http://metro.co.uk/2007/07/18/60-seconds-jeff-koons-532798/#ixzz3bThr2XKI," at metro.co.uk, 2007/07/18
1990s and later

“Putting a shovel in a gallery or museum signified “this shovel has become art.” And it actually was. The action itself is art, because the artist projects himself in choosing the shovel, and especially in placing it out of context. It is art in the sense that the imprint of a hand in a cave is art, the Mona Lisa is art, a happening is art, etc. It is a problem that touches on the ethics and function of the artist: he assumes the right to have this supra-human calling that allows him to say to others, “everything that I touch with my hand is transformed into art.” The artist imposes his anguish, his vision of the world, and himself on others. The artist emasculates the observer. Maybe he thinks that the latter deserves no better… The artist assumes the right to show you what you can see for yourself, what you could obviously see much more clearly without his intervention. I contest this right.”

Daniel Buren (1938) sculptor from France

Source: Art is no longer justifiable or setting the record straight, 2000, p. 66-67

“Our point of view on this question of the function of art is the same in all cases: there's no more an art of the insane than there is an art of dyspeptic people or the art of people with knee problems.”

Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) sculptor from France

Quote of Dubuffet on 'Art brut', in 'Art Brut Preferred to the Cultural Arts' (1949); (trans. Joachim Neugroschel), in Mildred Glimcher, Jean Dubuffet: Towards an Alternative Reality, New York: Abbeville Press, 1987, p. 104
1940's

“As I have said many times, for me an artist is a person who says he's an artist, and an artwork is what an artist says is an artwork. Although for myself, I am not interested in ideas as the burden of art.... the important thing about art is how it stimulates us. I think the more you are stimulated by more different kinds of art, the more demanding you're going to become on the level of your stimulation. The key to art is experience of it and proximity to it.”

Carl Andre (1935) American artist

Source: Artists talks 1969 – 1977, p. 14

“The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is-it’s to imagine what is possible.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

“Avant-garde art has become habitual, a dead letter with little spiritual consequence, however materially refined.”

Donald Kuspit (1935) American art critic

"Reconsidering the Spiritual in Art" http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v2n1/gallery/kuspit_d/reconsidering_print.htm, Blackbird (2003).

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