Problem of Social Engagement of the Historical Avant-garde: Social Effectiveness of Art and the Artist’s Responsibility

Abstract

The interwar period (1914-1940) in Europe and the USSR saw dramatic transformations in the art sphere, which involved changes in the status of art and social engagement and responsibility of the artist. Aesthetic and ideological programmes of the historical avant-garde centred around the concept of autonomy of art and strove to make art socially effective. This article analyzes different versions of the historical avant-garde within the framework of Peter Bürger's theory and its central concept – 'sublation of art in the sphere of life-praxis'. The analysis focuses on the logical and historical aspects of how this concept developed in European and Soviet artistic culture.