Between 1900-1939 there were many different movements in art mainly due to two reasons, modernisation and the First World War.

The term 'avant-garde' does not have one single meaning and has become synonymous with the evolving modern movement of art. 'Although 'art for art's sake' is a term not often used positively today this modernist sense of the avant-garde relates to that tradition insofar as art is not seen to require any external justification - ethical or political - for it's products' . However looking at the term in historical context the term has a different provenance. The term was used for the first time in the 1830's not in a debate concerning art but in the 'early socialist tradition as left-wing intellectuals and politicians tried to think through concepts of progress and freedom in emerging modern societies' . In his book 'Opinions litteraires, philosophiques et industrielles' Henri de Saint Simon the French Utopian Socialist philosopher used for the first time the term avant-garde in the relation to art. Saint-Simon constructed an imaginary debate between an artist, a savant (a scie!

The outbreak of the war in 1914 led to the collapse of the culture which had generated the avant-garde and 'all leading avant-garde movements themselves - Cubism, Futurism and Expressionism - were either destroyed or transformed by the was and the revolutions that followed it. ' By 1914 avant-garde had an identity, Picasso had gone beyond collage and had made freestanding three-dimensional constructions of still life subjects thus creating a new form of sculpture not seen before. 'Hitherto, sculpture had been either carved or modelled; now it could be constructed out of anything - not just marble or bronze but bits of tin, cardboard or cloth. ' The Dada Fair was staged by German avant-gardists who had been politicised by war and revolution. The name Dada itself was typical of the movement's anti-rationalism. The Zurich group was formed around the poets Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara and Richard Huelsenbeck, and the painters Hans Arp, marcel Janco and hans Richter. Zur!

'We want to fight ferociously against the fanatical, unconscious and snobbish religion of the past, which is nourished by the evil influence of museums. We rebel against the supine admiration of old canvases, old statues and old objects, and against the enthusiasm for all that is worm-eaten, dirty and corroded by time; we believe that the common contempt for everything young, new and palpitating with life is unjust and criminal.'

Cubism can be dated from approximately 1907 when Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon that has often been considered the first cubist work. The term derived for a reference to 'geo-metric schemas and cubes' by the critic Louis Vauxcelles in describing paintings in Paris by Georges Braque in November 1908. The fact that almost all technical and stylistic innovations were introduced by Braque and Picasso reinforces essential cubism, but the methods they devised were widely influenced precisely because they were so open to different and often contradictory adaptions. Vauxcelles references of cubes was not in itself innovative however there were two basic methods favoured in early cubism. The rendering of multiple dimensions by shifting viewpoints and of volume or mass in terms of flat planes - led to the complication not the simplification of the problem of depiction. The use of contrasting vantage points for different features became a central factor in the practise of all!

- The popular culture of Modern Art - Jeffrey Weiss.

Art movements occurring between 1900-1939 were all fundamentally based and guided by the avant-garde. The term avant-garde is therefore of great importance when discussing such work. At a time of war and revolution and equality in society there was always great demand for works which could be enjoyed and understood by everyone and was not individualistic which was considered right wing. Movements were formed through groups in order to prevent individualistic trends re-emerging however it was arguments that caused the break up of many of the movements.

Futurism was an Italian movement that originated in literary, that grew to embrace painting, sculpture, photography and architecture. It was launched in the publication on 20 February 1909 of 'Le Futurisme' by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in the Paris newspaper Le Figaro and was present in Italy and Russia between 1909-1916. Marinetti's intention was to reject the past, to revolutionise culture and make it more modern. The new ideology of Futurism set itself with violent enthusiasm against the weighty inheritance of an art tied to the Italian cultural tradition and exalted the idea of an aesthetic generated by the modern myth of the machine and of speed.

- The Challenge of the Avant-Garde - edited by Paul Wood.

In 1914 after World War One broke out Paris became in competition with Berlin and Moscow for the title of First City of modernity. The early 20th century of the French avant-garde was dominated mainly by the aesthetic concerns with

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