Word: avante
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...from them. Seen from our distance, that of a pornocratic culture drenched in genital imagery, the skill with which he did this might seem almost quaint. But in Demuth's day, the public atmosphere was, of course, very different, and he, like Marcel Duchamp and other artists in the avant- garde circle that formed around the collectors Louise and Walter Arensberg, took a special delight in sowing his work with sexual hints. The handlebar of a vaudeville trick rider's bicycle turns into a penis aimed at his crotch; sailors dance with girls in a cabaret but ogle one another...
CINDY SHERMAN, 33, belongs to a new American avant-grade which emphasizes content, narrative and ideas while exploring the effect of the visual image on the self and on culture. Sherman herself has attracted international attention for her provocative and grotesque photographs, most of which she appears in. Yet Sherman's photographs, which will be on display at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) through January 17, cannot be called self-portraits, for the artist uses make-up, costumes and wigs to create different characters, different personae in each piece...
...three hours, Burn This is too long and digressive, but as staged by Marshall W. Mason and a splendid young cast, it wins laughter in even its unnerving moments. If the narrative is indebted to the mainstream past, the tone has a more avant-garde echo of Sam Shepard -- a border skirmish between knockabout farce and knockdown violence. Yet Playwright Lanford Wilson manages to integrate well-crafted gags, mostly for the surviving gay roommate (Lou Liberatore). He describes his friend's gaudy casket as looking "like a giant Spode soup tureen." He says to the choreographer (Joan Allen) about...
...Svenska Film Institute's latest American release traces the odd evolution of an avant-garde production of Mozart's famous opera Don Giovanni. It centers around the whims of Walter (Etienne Glaser), the opera's director, who wants his actors to get in touch with the erotic and ends up offending all with his outrageous demands. The Mozart Brothers asks: "How can Walter reconcile his ideas with those of his cast and crew...
...what if he did have the orchestra play in the nude in a production in Oslo, or if he wants his opera stars to roll in mud onstage? Stripped of its avant-garde allure, The Mozart Brothers falls apart. Left behind is a dull expose of empty personal relationships between Walter, his ex-wife, the actors, his children and his new lover...