How to Be Avant-Garde
Modern Artists and the Quest to End Art
One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025 “Art has poisoned our life,” proclaimed Dutch artist and De Stijl cofounder Theo van Doesburg. Reacting to the tumultuous crises of the twentieth century, especially the horrors of World War I, avant-garde artists and writers sought to destroy art by transforming it into the substance of everyday life. Following the evolution of these revolutionary groups, How to Be Avant-Garde charts its pioneers and radical ideas. From Paris to New York, from Zurich to Moscow and Berlin, avant-gardists challenged the confines of the definition of art along with the confines of the canvas itself.…
The strange story of the twentieth-century artists who sought to destroy art by transforming it into the substance of everyday life.