ABSTRACT
Modern Art has been the official art of the North Atlantic democracies since the end of the Second World War in 1945. Evidence for this is easy to find. Look at the artists chosen by their governments for exhibition in the National Pavilions at the Venice Biennale. A new fact known in Europe and the United States for some time has entered the public discourse on art and culture in Britain. Modern art, the tradition of the avant-garde art of the last century, has a substantial if minority audience. If the avant-garde has triumphed, what is the citadel it has overcome, what army follows in the wake of this vanguard? How real and complete is this triumph, or does the avant-garde metaphor misconceive the critical nature of art? Some part of the answer to these questions has to propose an understanding of the social origins of the avant-garde.
