Conclusion: Avant-Gardes, Revolutions, and Aesthetics

The conclusion discusses some of the topics broached in the introduction (such as the avant-gardes, aesthetics, the success and failure of revolutions, the connection between postmodernism and postsocialist avant-garde movements), as well as related issues such as Friedrich Schiller’s and Jacques Rancière’s interpretations of aesthetics in its relation to politics, the unified vision of art and life, and specific features of Dada that, while extreme and radical, do not belong among the aesthetic avant-gardes. It offers the postmodern avant-garde movement in China as an exemplary case of the third-generation avant-garde, and presents Aleksandar Flaker’s interpretation of revolutions in avant-garde art movements as a viable way to explain revolutions in art. It also points out the resemblance between the role of ancient Greek art and the aesthetic avant-garde and the role of community for the avant-garde.