ABSTRACT
It is impossible to separate the question of the avant-garde between the wars from the study of the modernists' incessant oscillation between tradition and innovation. The philosophy of the 'rappel a l'ordre' was decided upon in the aftermath of the Armistice, mainly by protagonists of the avant-garde keen to revitalize their aesthetic experiments in such a way that construction again be seen as honourable. The 'rappel a l'ordre' thus poses the problem of tradition as a source of rejuvenation for modern art. The First World War made possible the encounter with the international avant-gardes. If the desire to make peace with realism and figuration was one of the fundamental aspects of this 'retour a l'ordre', the act of turning away from the easel in order to create a utilitarian art, which served the community, also reveals the evolution of the avant-garde which emphasizes its theoretical provocativeness more than its aesthetic choices.
