VANGUARD

The original meaning of avant - garde refers to the part of an armed force that goes in front of the main body . The vanguard is made up of the front lines of the combat formation .

The concept can be extended to name the outpost of an artistic, political or ideological movement . In this sense, the avant-garde is something new that escapes from the dominant trend and that could lay the foundations for future development.

The avant-garde supposes a renewal of forms and contents. In the case of art, for example, it tries to reinvent its foundations and confronts existing movements. At first, the avant-garde is a minority and tends to generate rejection from traditionalist circles. With the passage of time, however, it can become part of the system itself (losing, as a consequence, its avant-garde status).

Although the avant-gardes have very different characteristics, they are similar in the fight against traditions, the commitment to innovation, the exercise of individual freedom and their experimental nature.

La Vanguardia , on the other hand, is a morning newspaper with general information that is published in the city ofBarcelona(Spain). Its first edition was published in1881, a fact that makes it one of the oldest newspapers in the country.

The Godó Group , linked to the origins of the newspaper, is the current owner of La Vanguardia . Its president and chief editor is Javier Godó , born in 1941 . At the political level, La Vanguardia is located in centrism. It is a newspaper with a liberal and Catalan tendency.

The artistic vanguards

Between the years 1914 and 1939 there was an evolution in the way of thinking, both in art and in politics, and the artistic avant-gardes represented movements that changed the vision of people and reality, leaving behind attention to detail. , in pursuit of greater creative freedom, using abstract images and giving colors an unprecedented importance.

Some of the most significant movements were:

* Futurism : originated by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, through the publication of a manifesto that invited the search for a modern order , leaving the past and tradition behind . The First World War played a major role in the end of Futurism, as many of its representatives perished on the battlefield. Ironically, many had thought that this disastrous milestone in history would have served to destroy the schemes that had been given so far, leaving a blank canvas on which to rebuild the culture of the West;

* Cubism : it is a reflection on form, from an intellectual and visual perspective . The most recurrent themes of this movement are still life and portraits. He also saw the emergence of collage, which consisted of the combination of pieces of various materials on the same surface. Basically, Cubism proposes the representation of nature through the use of geometry, placing figures in a single plane. It is worth mentioning that it also made its appearance in literature, thanks to the work of the French writer Guillaume Apollinare; in this case, it was based on the combination of concepts and images at random;

* Suprematism : heavily influenced by the two movements just discussed, Suprematism was based on giving a leading role to pure sensitivity and its supremacy in the figurative arts . Some of his traces are the use of basic geometric shapes , such as squares, lines and circles, painted with a limited range of colors; its evolution saw a stage in which monochrome was experimented with, and also produced works made exclusively in black and white.