Yareah Magazine

David McDowell 

Did the ‘Avant-Garde' change the face of art forever?  This investigation looks at the origins of Avant-Garde and the effect the ground breaking movement has had on contemporary culture.

by David McDowell

This concept was first used in artist circles by French Realist Painter, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), who in 1850 declared himself as the founder of the Avant-Garde movement.  1963 sparked the official declaration of the Avant-Garde when Courbet was rejected from the coveted Paris Salon.  His revenge was simple; to open the, ‘Salon des Refusés', an exhibition of rejected pieces, directly opposite the Salon.
The Avant-Garde itself was not a singular movement but a combination of movements that challenged contemporary culture; Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Dadaism, Expressionism, Futurism etc.  The term became widely used in creative cliques to describe experimental creativity or the shock of the new.
The Avant-Garde ended around 1950 when it was no longer shocking, but accepted.  Did it all happen too quickly?  French Nabi Painter, Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) claimed, "There was so much more to extract from colour as a means of expression. But developments ran ahead, society was ready to accept Cubism and Surrealism before we reached what we had viewed as our aim."
So how has the Avant-Garde affected art today? Society has been left to question, ‘What is art?'.  Isn't art the creativity of the mind? ...but since the creativity of the mind is endless, can we really define art?  It seems art no longer has definition.  Is it this instability that forces us to question everything?
The Avant-Garde is surely a perfect example of the ‘Butterfly Effect' theorized by American mathematician and meteorologist, Edward Norton Lorenz (1917-2008).  The ‘Butterfly Effect' is the Chaos Theory of how tiny or insignificant events can have significant effects.  For example, if a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, does it create a hurricane in Texas?  The same principal can be applied to the Avant-Garde movement.  Courbet is the butterfly; Contemporary art is the hurricane.
Are there any boundaries left to explore or have we as a creative collective exhausted all possibilities?  It remains to be seen but one thing is certain; the Avant-Garde has changed the face of art forever.

David McDowell
David McDowell was born in Northern Ireland in1986.  He was encouraged at secondary school to continue his studies and pursue art.  McDowell enrolled in Limavady College of FHE and completed a BTEC Diploma (Foundation Art) in 2005.  Later that year, he moved to Belfast where he developed his art further at the University of Ulster. Graduating in 2008 with a BA (Hons) in Fine and Applied Art, McDowell moved back to his home town of Limavady were he presently works as a professional artist.

His latest art works focus on light, composition and colour.  Conceptually he plays on the notion of making private life public whilst exposing the viewer as a voyeur.

McDowell is represented in Northern Ireland by Canvas Galleries, Belfast where he is currently exhibiting alongside Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Pablo Picasso.

Read more:

http://www.davidmcdowell.co.uk/

http://yareah.com/davidmcdowell/

*Yareah magazine es una revista cultural fundada y dirigida por el escritor Martín Cid.
**Created and edited by the writer Martin Cid.