Towards a "Reconciliation of Man and Nature". Nature and Ecology in the Aesthetic Avant-Garde of the Twentieth Century

Publisher： Rodopi

ISSN： 0921-2515

Source： Avant Garde Critical Studies, Vol.20, Iss.1, 2006-10, pp. : 371-387

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

Avant-garde art is often regarded as a turn away from nature, due both to the rejection of conventional mimesis and to the special predilection of the avant-garde for technology and metropolitan life. Whereas some sections of the avant-garde might indeed have been "anti-nature", one can also observe a line of tradition in the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century reaching from the early twentieth century avant-garde (e.g. Die Brücke, Arp, Schwitters, Lissitzky) to developments after the Second World War, notably in Land Art. In regard to a more harmonious stance towards nature, Land Art artists like Goldsworthy and Long realise in many respects what some protagonists of the early avant-garde formulated as their main pursuits.