Avant-Garde Movements in Art and Literature: Early 20th Century

Avant-Garde Movements in Art and Literature

Key Features of the Avant-Garde

Avant-garde refers to the movements in art developed in the early 20th century with a desire to resist the concept of art based on imitating reality. These movements retained a taste for the exceptional and unusual, and their ideological programs were broadcast in magazines. The characteristics that were common in art and literature are:

• Anti-Realism and Autonomy of Art: Rejection of reality, removing any element from the work linking art to the real. In poetry, the ideal of pure poetry creates a purely poetic world.
• Irrationalism: The cult of the image establishes relationships between people and objects that are not logically given. The texts are permeated with irrationalism.
• A Desire for Originality: Avant-garde artists looked for beauty in how different and original they were. They defended their individualism and rejected the overcrowding of society. The result was a minority art. In poetry, this attitude led to the closure of the text, only accessible to an elite, and a rejection of literary tradition.
• Aesthetic Experimentation: Pushing the boundaries with the desire to experiment.

The European Avant-Garde

Futurism

Emerged in Italy, with writer Marinetti publishing his first manifesto in 1909. In the proclamation, he praised anti-romanticism, mechanics, and urban civilization, and literature received new futuristic themes. They claimed a total renovation of the poetic language.

Cubism

Born as the pictorial avant-garde led by Picasso, it involved the decomposition of reality into geometric forms. French poets, such as Guillaume Apollinaire, presented texts as visual objects.

Surrealism

Emerged from some components of the Dada group. It was founded by André Breton. The Surrealists' goal was the search for true reality by exploring the unconscious, as in dreams. They were influenced by Karl Marx and called for the release from alienation imposed by capitalist society. To try to convey the vision of this world beyond reality, they resorted to a procedure called automatic writing. It would encourage access to unconscious imagery by means of symbols. The result was logical inconsistency, but of poetic value.

Avant-Garde Movements in Spain

The Spanish avant-garde is marked by determining factors:

• In 1909, Ramón Gómez de la Serna published a translated manifesto of Futurism that left its mark on the choice of certain issues related to modern life.
• In 1918, the Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro, founder of Creationism, arrived in Spain.
• In 1925, a translation of Breton's Surrealist Manifesto was published. Surrealism was the avant-garde movement with the greatest influence in Spain.

Ultraism and Creationism

These movements are based on the same principle: the predominance of lyrics and the rejection of poetry that tries to imitate reality.

Ultraism

Born under the guidance of Rafael Cansinos-Assens in order to present the latest trends in art. The Ultraists postulated the suppression of sentimental and narrative elements, only accepted through the prism of irony. They gave importance to the perception and production of metaphors. The production of the Ultraists was low; they developed a highly theoretical task.

Creationism

Came to Spain from Vicente Huidobro and was cultivated by Juan Larrea and Gerardo Diego.