Literally meaning “foreguard” or “vanguard” in French. Avant-garde does not specifically refer to a type or style of art, rather a mode of thinking and creating that does not align itself with the ‘status quo.’  Avant-garde refers to people or works that are considered radical or unorthodox by art or society in general. Avant garde is generally considered to be a mark of modernism, tracing its history back through the Situationists (an international group of social revolutionaries formed of avant-garde thinkers, political theorists, and artists) to Dadaism.