avant-garde (n.)(also avant garde, avantgarde); French, literally "advance guard" (see
avant+
guard(n.)). Used in English 15c.-18c. in a literal, military sense; borrowed again 1910 as an artistic term for "pioneers or innovators of a particular period." Also used around the same time in a political sense in communist and anarchist publications. As an adjective, by 1925.
- The artwork. The prior year the equity partners at Scully & Pershing had gone to war over a designer’s proposal to spend $2 million on some baffling avant-garde paintings to be hung in the firm’s main foyer. The designer was ultimately fired, the paintings forgotten, and the money split into bonuses. (Grisham - Grey Mountain)
- The Berlin that Schrödinger left bore little resemblance to the city he loved. Less than a year earlier the German capital had been full of life—artistic, scientific, political. Its avant-garde theater and operettas attracted international attention. It welcomed people of all faiths and viewpoints. (Halpern - Einstein)
