ABSTRACT
The European avant-garde movements can be defined as an attack on the status of art in bourgeois society. The avant-gardists thus adopted an essential element of Aestheticism. The avant-gardists thus adopted an essential element of Aestheticism. Aestheticism had made the distance from the praxis of life the content of works. A dadaist manifestation does not have work character but is nonetheless an authentic manifestation of the artistic avant-garde. With the help of Herbert Marcuse's theoretical formulation concerning the twofold character of art in bourgeois society, the avant-gardist intent can be understood with particular clarity. Indeed, Valry's theorem concerning the force of pride that sets off and propels the creative process renews once again the notion of the individual character of artistic production central to art in bourgeois society. The avant-garde intends the abolition of autonomous art, by which it means that art is to be integrated into the praxis of life.
