AVANT
AVANT, also known as AVANT street art guerrilla collective, was the artist group active in New York City from 1980 to 1984. By 1984 AVANT had produced thousands of acrylic on paper paintings and plastered them on walls, doors, bus-stops and galleries citywide. Principal artists were Christopher Hart Chambers,{{Cite web|url=http://www.christopherchambers.com/|title=Christopher Hart Chambers | Artist|website=www.christopherchambers.com}} David Fried,{{Cite web|url=http://www.davidfried.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903060318/http://www.davidfried.com/ |url-status=dead |title=DAVID FRIED - Photograms, Kinetic Interactive Sculpture, Photography, Sculptures|archive-date=September 3, 2013|website=www.davidfried.com}} and Marc Thorne.
History and street presence
AVANT{{cite news | first=Grace | last=Glueck | title=Art: A huge Exhibition At Brooklyn Terminal | date=1983-09-30 | work =The New York Times | pages =C20 }}[http://avant-streetart.com/avant_street_art_press_nyc_80s.htm Online scan of original article. Retrieved 2009-8-15]{{cite book | last = Cameron | first = Dan |author2=Julie Ault |author3=Liza Kirwin |author4=Alan W. Moore | title = East Village USA | publisher = The New Museum of Contemporary Art | year = 2004 | location = New York, New York | pages = 46 }} was a group of five young New York artists working collectively who wheat pasted handmade original poster sized works of non-calligraphic art in the streets of NYC.{{cite news | first=Katherine | last=Drasher | title=Avant's on the Street | date=1983-06-30 | url =http://avant-streetart.com/avant_street_art_press_nyc_80s.htm | work =The Villager | pages =31–32 | access-date = 2009-08-29 }} While the members of Avant assert that they began in the winter of 1980, the earliest available press documentation of their street art or art exhibitions is found in the New York Native from June 1982,{{cite news | first=Nicolas | last=Moufarrege | title=Galleries: Arty, Party, Smarty | date=1982-06-07 | url =http://avant-streetart.com/avant_street_art_press_nyc_80s.htm | work =New York Native | access-date=2009-08-29}} wherein a later article published in the Villager places their origins at January 1981. By 1984 avant had produced thousands of acrylic on paper paintings and plastered them on walls, doors, bus-stops, galleries and museums citywide, concentrated mostly in lower Manhattan. As a group, they were capable of producing hundreds of individual paintings per week, and deployed them in the streets on a regular basis.{{cite news | first=Jud | last=Tully | title=Exhibitions | date=1983-02-01 | url=http://avant-streetart.com/avant_street_art_press_nyc_80s.htm | work =Art/World | access-date=2009-08-29}} They also mounted three-dimensional artworks to street sign poles and commandeered bus stop advertising light boxes, replacing the contents with their own original works of art, then relocking the cabinets.
Exhibitions
Over 40 exhibitions of AVANT's work were held in New York galleries and nightclubs between 1981 and 1984.{{cite news | first=Walter | last=Robinson | title=East Village 1984 - a Brief Chronology | year=1984 | url=http://avant-streetart.com/avant_street_art_press_nyc_80s.htm | work =Art In America | pages =138 | access-date=2009-08-29}} Over a typical artist-gallery financial dispute, they actually managed to commandeer a gallery in Soho to open the 1982 September season with a self curated exhibition.{{cite news | first=Eric | last=Darton | title=Avant Steals the Show | date=1982-11-01 | url=http://avant-streetart.com/avant_street_art_press_nyc_80s.htm | work =East Village Eye | pages =24–25 | access-date=2009-08-29}} Another fresh concept was to start an exhibition in the street that would continue into a gallery. They called this the “Drive-In Show,” which started with a dozen numbered oversized paintings pasted high up on a parking lot wall in Soho, and continued up the block in Gabrielle Bryers Gallery starting with painting number 13.{{cite news | first=Guy | last=Trebay | title=Arts - photo caption |date=January 1983| url=http://avant-streetart.com/avant_street_art_press_nyc_80s.htm | work =The Village Voice | access-date=2009-08-29}}
References
External links
- [http://avant-streetart.com AVANT historical archive] Large collection of images, press, essays.
Category:Artists from New York (state)