Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes

268 Pages·1993·42.524 MB·English

by  Richard Kostelanetz

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DICTIONARYOFTHE
AVANT-GARDES
Other Works by Richard Kostelanetz
Books Authored Fifty Untitled Constructivst Fictions (1991); Constructs Five (1991);
Flipping(1991); ConstructsSix(1991);TwoIntervals (1991);Parallel
Intervals(1991)
TheTheatreofMixedMeans(1968);MasterMinds(1969);VisualLan-
guage(1970);In theBeginning(1971);TheEnd ofIntelligentWriting
(1974); I Articulations/Short Fictions (1974);Recyclings, Volume One Audiotapes
(1974); Openings 8c Closings (1975);PortraitsfromMemory (1975);
Constructs (1975); Numbers: Poems 8c Stories (1975); Modulations/
Extrapolate/ComeHere(1975);Illuminations(1977);OneNightStood ExperimentalProse(1976);Openings&Closings(1976);Foreshortenings
(1977);Wordsand(1978);ConstructsTwo(1978);"TheEnd"Appendix/ &Other Stories(1977);Prayingto theLord(1977, 1981);Asdescent/
"TheEnd"Essentials(1979);TwentiesintheSixties(1979);AndSoForth Anacatabasis(1978);Invocations (1981);Seductions (1981);The Gos-
(1979);MoreShortFictions(1980);MetamorphosisintheArts(1980); pels/Die Evangelien (1982);Relationships(1983);TheEightNights of
TheOldPoetriesandtheNew(1981);Reincarnations(1981);Autobiogra- Hanukah(1983);TwoGermanHorspiel(1983);NewYorkCity(1984);
phies (1981); Arenas/Fields/Pitches/Turfs (1982); Epiphanies (1983); ASpecialTime(1985);LeBateauIvre/TheDrunkenBoat(1986);Resume
AmericanImaginations(1983);Recyclings(1984);AutobiographienNew (1988);Onomatopoeia(1988);CarnivaloftheAnimals(1988);Ameri-
YorkBerlin(1986);TheOldFictionsandtheNew(1987);ProsePieces/ cas'Game(1988);Kaddish(1990);Ululation(1992);Epiphanies(1982-
Aftertexts(1987);TheGrants-Fix(1987);ConversingwithCage(1988); );MoreorLess(1988-)
On Innovative Music(ian)s (1989); Unfinished Business: An Intellectual
Nonhistory(1990);TheNewPoetriesandSomeOld(1991);Politicsin
the African-American Novel (1991); Solos,Duets,Trios, 8c Choruses Extended Radio Features
(1991); On Innovative Art(ist)s (1992); Wordworks: Poems New &
Selected (1993); Twenty-FiveYears After (1993); On Innovative Per-
formance^)(1994) AudioArt(1978);Text-SoundinNorthAmerica(1981);HorspielUSA:
Radio Comedy (1983); Glenn Gouldas a Radio Artist (1983);Audio
Books Edited WYroirtkinCgit(y19R8a4d)i;oA(u1d9i8o7);CoOmresodnyWMealdleesiansAamneAruidciaoTAordtaisyt((11998868));;NNoerw-
manCorwin:PionierederUS-Radiokunst(1991)
OnContemporaryLiterature(1964,1969);TwelvefromtheSixties(1967);
The Young American Writers (1967); Beyond Left & Right: Radical
Thought for Our Times (1968); Possibilities ofPoetry (1970); Imaged Videotapes
Words&WordedImages(1970);Moholy-Nagy(1970,1991);JohnCage
BAs(tE(u1res1mr9s9emee8a7abr'0y0klsi)s,ti;cFhnaT(1irg1h9co9(t9eu(71i11g59oY)9)h7na;7;6sl8)FS)eL;io(;cac1GEt9niVeis7agiotr1lsnuh)t;eueaSretapgurSileedsceceseLu(&iiS1lCnt9taoeg7etS3rniit)aTntor;thneu(uTrsc1mrht9oep(8ueuo10rC9gr)eE7r;ha1di)(rStg;1cSyie9eHch7ni(uo5uas1)fcrmm9;kAi7adY8o(,(n1aso19pu(791tA1n979la9)2g8tt8;)ee9i0;r)r)oTn;;nIeaCnAxtAr(uti1siYrv-9tsoea7iSes3uclom)stu;(bLh1niil9Entdi7se1(nNsr)1Tgaao;9eyt7rxFAiu2ttusnr)h--s;eg TIi(((hn1n11g999rd898ee(808pe1)))e9;;;Pn8rAd7SKmo)teiesr;nnreiceiHntePcgoiia(ceTms1c'we9Wes7roG9Mia()to(1;miv19en9i7E9g5pe(0)is1)(;p9;1hR8O9ae8Kp8nc)a9e;iod)nenId;issninivVs(gdoi1hsced9ar8(e8te01ocid)9o;9CnS(0ltsP1)ora9(sir81nit7g9in)st8g;is8o(T)n(1;ws19T98o(h791e5)E9);Gr8;oo6Ots)Dipn;eceocVllmVisaiadrdAteaebootorpitiWooadrenpgiieetoas-df
Criticism(1981);TheLiteratureofSoHo(1981);AmericanWritingToday
S(1t9e8i1n,A1d9v9a1n);ceTdhe(1A9v8a9n)t;-MGearrcdeeCTurnandiintigohnami:nLDiatnecriatnugrein(S19p8a2c)e;aGnedrtTriumdee Films Produced & Directed
(1992);JohnCage:Writer(1993);WritingsAboutJohnCage(1993)
& Epiphanies(inGerman,1983;inEnglish,1981—)
Books Coauthored Edited
&
TheNewAmericanArts(1965) Films Coproduced Directed
&
Books Cocompiled Introduced ConstructivistFictions(1978);EinVerlorenesBerlin(1983);EttForlorat
Berlin(1984);ABerlinLost(1985);BerlinPerdu(1986);ElBerlinPerdido
(1987);BerlinSche-EinenaJother(1988)
Assembling(Twelvevolumes, 1970-1981)
Ferformance Scripts Holograms
Epiphanies(1980);Seductions(1986);Lovings(1991) OnHolography(1978);Antitheses(1985);HiddenMeanings(1989)
&
Limited Editions: Books Prints
Retrospective Exhibitions
NumbersOne(1974);WordPrints(1975);TabulaRasa(1978);Inexistences
(1978);ConstructsThree(1991);Intermix(1991);ConstructsFour(1991); Wordsand(1978)
DICTIONARY OF THE
AVANT-GARDES
Richard Kostelanetz
with contributions by Richard Carlin, Geof Huth, Gerald Janecek,
Katy Matheson, H.R. Brittain, John Robert Colombo,
Ulrike Michal Dorda, Charles Doria, and Robert Haller
a cappella books
—
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kostelanetz, Richard
The dictionary ofthe avant-gardes / Richard Kostelanetz with
assistance from H.R. Brittain . . . [et. al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-55652-202-9 $16.95
— : —
1. Arts, M—odern 2—0th century D—ictionaries. 2. Avant-garde
(Aesthetics) History 20th century Dictionaries. 3. Artists
—
Biography Dictionaries. I. Brittain, H.R. II. Title.
NX456.K67 1993
700'.9'04—dc20 93-17793
CIP
©
1993 by Richard Kostelanetz
a cappella books
an imprint of
Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Editorial offices:
P.O. Box 380
Pennington, NJ 08534
Business/sales offices:
814 N. Franklin St.
Chicago, IL 60610
For Nicolas Slonimsky
Cher maftre

The a—vant-garde was something constit—uted from moment to moment by
artists a relative few in each moment going toward what seemed the
improbable. Itwasonlyaftertheavant-garde, as wenowrecognize it, hadbeen
under way for some fifty years that the notion of it seemed to begin to
correspond to a fixed ent—ity with stable attributes.
Clement Greenberg, "Counter-Avant-Garde" (1971)
In thecaseofDuchamp, theantagonismhearousesisanelementofhisrole, and
even, ifone wishes, ofhisgreatne—ss andprofundity.
Harold Rosenberg, Art on the Edge (1975)
Fora verylong time everybodyrefusesand then almostwithouta pause almost
everybody accepts. In the history of the refused in the arts and literature the
rapidityofthe change is always startling. When the acceptance comes, by that
acceptance the thing created becomes a classic. It is a natural phenomena, a
ratherextraordinarynaturalphenomena thata thingacceptedbecomesaclassic.
Andwhatis the characteristicqualityofa classic? The characteristicqualityofa
classicis thatitisbeautiful. . . . Ofcourse itisbeautifulbutfirstallbeautyin itis
deniedandthenallthebeautyofitisaccepted. Ifeveryone werenotsoindolent
theywouldrealize thatbeautyisbeautyeven whenitisirritatingandstimulating
not only when it is acce—ptedand classic.
Gertrude Stein, "Composition as Explanation" (1926)
—
Thesituationof[Arnold]Schoenbergistypical hewasneverinfashionandnow
he's become old-fashioned.
—Milton Babbitt, Words about Music (1987)
The viability ofa genre like the viability ofa familyis basedon survival, and the
indispensablepropertyofa surviving familyisa continuingabilityto take in new
members who bring fresh geneticmaterialinto the oldreservoir. So the viability
ofa genre may depend fairly heavily on an avant-garde activity that has often
been seen as threatening its very existence, but is more accurately seen as
opening its present to its pastand to its future.
—DavidAntin, "The Strangerat the Door" (1988)
To write a history ofthe avant-garde is already to contain it: obviously within a
narrative structure and thus inevitably within a certain ideological regime, a
certain formation of(prejudgments. Everyhistoryis tosome extentan attempt
to determine (to comprehend and to control) the avant-garde's currency, its
demise, orits surviv—al today.
Paul Mann, The Theory-Death of the Avant-Garde (1991)