The Avant-Garde and the Aesthetics of Survival

Abstract

T TAKES some sense of history, however vague or dim, just to utter term in relation to aesthetic and stylistic problems of art. Implicit in term, for me, is handy, if fanciful image of the irreversible arrow of time; and it is generally assumed that avant-garde either sits on point of that arrow, penetrating to next unfolding moment of time, or perhaps even occupies whole of arrowhead itself, sharp cutting edges ending in point which will tear into fabric of future. Before we begin though we are already faced with two irreconcilable paradoxes: first, shaft of arrow, though propelling arrowhead and its point into future, is itself still in past and will always remain in some past relative to position of arrowhead and its point; and second, point of arrow can never, if Zeno is right, reach toward which it is presumably travelling, and must therefore remain in a seemingly motionless present, always in transit, never able to reach it longs for. Thus every wave of future movement is, at least theoretically, an illusion because is always beyond our grasp, nor can it ever be reached except as a present. Every new movement in arts (or culture generally) is attached to its history and its past no matter how much its initiators and supporters would like to disclaim them; and in instance of that part of today's avant-garde which actively wishes it could cut itself free from any and all ties with past history, memory, or cultural associations, we see peculiarly pathetic 20oth century phenomenon of disaffected human spirit trying desparately to dissociate itself from itself and its own works. Whatever part of time's arrow we travel on-shaft, arrowhead or point-we are in some relation to other parts; and awareness of one position affects our awareness of others. We can see this readily enough in any number of instances chosen at random from Western culture: for example, cool, under-