Preservation, Radicalism, and the Avant-Garde Canon

"Written by academics, curators and artists, it provides fresh insights into some high-profile avant-garde figures while shedding new light on a wealth of lesser-known practitioners. The book's engagement with the preservation of avant-garde work raises important curatorial and museological questions, while remaining alert to the risk of commodifying the avant-gardes. In challenging the parameters that have all too often restricted our understanding of the phenomenon, this book redefines the avant-gardes as emphatically plural, nomadic, and powerfully relevant in the twenty-first century." - Eric Robertson, Professor, Modern French Literary and Visual Culture, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK "This wonderful book carefully scrutinizes - and brilliantly revitalizes - avant-gardist ambitions to displace, destabilize and deterritorialize artistic genres, academic disciplines, national canons and other tired frameworks: the margins keep coming!" - Nikolaj Lubecker, author of The Feel-Bad Film

Combining a range of content with self-reflexive examination by scholars and practitioners, this edited volume interrogates the contemporary significance of the avant-garde. Rather than focusing on a particular region, period, or movement, the contributors bring together case studies to examine what constitutes the avant-garde canon.

Combining a range of content with self-reflexive examination by scholars and practitioners, this edited volume interrogates the contemporary significance of the avant-garde. Rather than focusing on a particular region, period, or movement, the contributors bring together case studies to examine what constitutes the avant-garde canon.