“Avant-garde is French for bullshit”

— John Lennon

Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

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John Lennon228

English singer and songwriter 1940–1980

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“Avant Garde is French for bullshit.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

“I think a label like "avant-garde" defeats itself. You learn to have avant-garde exhibitions. The very fact that avant-garde can have an exhibition defeats the purpose of avant-garde, because it's already formalised and ritualised.”

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Source: The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 301

“The media themselves are the avant-garde of our society. Avant-garde no longer exists in painting, music and poetry, it's the media themselves.”

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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.”

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