: The avant-garde’s true goal was to destroy the "autonomy" of art—the idea that art should exist in its own special sphere (museums, galleries)—to merge it with the "praxis of life".
In his influential 1974 book Theory of the Avant-Garde , German critic Peter Bürger distinguishes between the and the postwar neo-avant-garde . His central thesis is that the original avant-garde (e.g., Dada, Surrealism, Constructivism) was not just another art movement but a fundamental attack on the "institution of art" and the way art is separated from daily life. Key Concepts from Bürger’s Critique Avant-Garde Neo-Avant-Garde (Avant-Garde Critic...
Bürger’s dismissal of the neo-avant-garde as "hollow repetition" has been heavily debated: Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde - Monoskop : The avant-garde’s true goal was to destroy