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Avant-Guardian Musings

  • Spring 2025
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“Art is an outlet toward regions which are not ruled by time and space”
— Marcel Duchamp

Avant-Guardian Musings is a curated space of ideas and information, resources, reviews and readings for undergraduate and graduate students studying modern and contemporary art history and visual art theory, film and photography studies, and the expanding field of visual culture and screen studies. For students currently enrolled in my courses or the field school, the blog and associated social media links also serve as a place of reflection and an extension of the ideas and visual material raised in lecture and seminar discussion.

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Blog
From the Archives | How (And Why) To Take Excellent Lecture Notes
From the Archives | How (And Why) To Take Excellent Lecture Notes
about 10 months ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Top 10 Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibitions Worth Visiting In 2023
Top 10 Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibitions Worth Visiting In 2023
about 2 years ago

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Delighted to find these iconic Tom Ford Whitney’s deep in my closet over the weekend ✨☀️🕶️Anyone else remember these sunglasses from back in the day? I want to say these are well over 15 years old and they were a very big splurge, but I loved
Delighted to find these iconic Tom Ford Whitney’s deep in my closet over the weekend ✨☀️🕶️Anyone else remember these sunglasses from back in the day? I want to say these are well over 15 years old and they were a very big splurge, but I loved rediscovering and wearing them today. Great design is timeless. Invest in things you love— your future self will thank you✨ . . . #tomford #sunglasses #tomfordwhitney #whatiwore #shamelessselfie
If Seoul was a colour, it would be neon and bright, and if it was a shape, it would be curved and post-structural.
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#artanddesign #odetoacity #urban #seoul #korea #design #contemporaryart #architecture
If Seoul was a colour, it would be neon and bright, and if it was a shape, it would be curved and post-structural. . . . #artanddesign #odetoacity #urban #seoul #korea #design #contemporaryart #architecture
Visited the stunning Leeum Museum of Art today and took in the spatial delights of Korean architecture married to modern art. What I love most is how the familiar European and American “masters” (i.e. Rodin, Giacometti, Rauschenberg, Hess
Visited the stunning Leeum Museum of Art today and took in the spatial delights of Korean architecture married to modern art. What I love most is how the familiar European and American “masters” (i.e. Rodin, Giacometti, Rauschenberg, Hesse, Flavin, Rothko, Andre, Lewitt, Stella, etc…) are curated both in dialogue with Korean modern artists such as Lee Ufan and Kim Chong-yung, but also in juxtaposition to the beautiful natural setting that is showcased through large windows throughout the complex. A must see gallery if you visit Seoul. . . . #seoul #korea #modernart #contemporaryart #koreanart #arthistory
Flaneur for the day in Seoul ✨🇰🇷 A global city of high contrast, beauty, and living history around every corner.
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#seoul #korea #flaneur #daytripping #streetart #contemporaryart #modernart #urbanart #arthistory #urban #globalcity
Flaneur for the day in Seoul ✨🇰🇷 A global city of high contrast, beauty, and living history around every corner. . . . #seoul #korea #flaneur #daytripping #streetart #contemporaryart #modernart #urbanart #arthistory #urban #globalcity
Hello Seoul! 🇰🇷🛬✨안녕하세요 서울 Lucky me, I am incredibly excited to have arrived in South Korea today and staying smack dab in the middle of the stylish Gangnam District at the COEX Conference Centre. It is my first time in this beautiful city and I ca
Hello Seoul! 🇰🇷🛬✨안녕하세요 서울 Lucky me, I am incredibly excited to have arrived in South Korea today and staying smack dab in the middle of the stylish Gangnam District at the COEX Conference Centre. It is my first time in this beautiful city and I cannot wait to begin exploring, especially the contemporary art and design scene. I am here to attend and give a paper at the #IPSA2025 International Political Science Association World Congress, the largest global gathering of researchers and academics working on all things political and international relations oriented. IPSA as an academic association was founded under the auspices of UNESCO in 1949 and is devoted to the advancement of political science in all parts of the world and promotes collaboration between scholars in both established and emerging democracies. The 2025 Conference theme is “Resisting Autocratization in Polarized Societies” and I was invited to present a paper on my ongoing work on Trumpism, the neo avante-garde, and visual culture on a panel examining the role of cultural actors during periods of democratic backsliding. I only had a few hours after I arrived to my hotel to check out COEX, but I had to see the world famous library housed inside the shopping complex. It was a very cool sight for a book nerd like me 🤓 . . . #seoul #korea #southkorea #politicalscience #arthistory #academiclife #conference @kpuarts @kwantlenu

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© Dorothy Barenscott, Avant-Guardian Musings, and dorothybarenscott.com, 2010-2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dorothy Barenscott, Avant-Guardian Musings, and dorothybarenscott.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Meditation on Time: The End of Term Reckoning, A.K.A. The Graduation Exhibition

April 11, 2014

....we all live in its grip...... time.

In the weeks to come, many university students and faculty will be marking the end of the 2014 spring semester. For some, it will be a time of deep reflection and accomplishment, while for others it will be a time of escaping and forgetting. Whatever the case, the final reckoning will be determined in large part by how time was budgeted, measured, and spent. Like many of you, this is a reality that I grapple with personally and professionally as I figure out how to balance the demands and pleasures of life. For the past year and a half, I have being running something of a marathon in my work and home life, and as I look forward to finally winding down this summer and reinvesting time for both this blog and my own writing and research projects, I find myself deeply inspired by the creative individuals I have been teaching and working with during this past academic year. Tonight, many of these students, along with their family, friends, colleagues, and instructors, will be gathering at a rite of passage-- the BFA Graduation Exhibition. Some weeks back, I was approached by the students of this year's show to write the foreword to their catalogue. I share it here with you as both an invitation to attend and celebrate in their accomplishments, but also as a way to reflect upon the theme of this year's show, the time that roughly spans the course of one semester-- ninety-seven days.

Congratulations to Tessa, Roxanne, Rhea, Celina, Kirsten, Hira, Shannon, Derek, Debbie, Charis, Cale, Alana, and Alison! It has been a true pleasure getting to know each of you, and watching the development of your talents and ideas over the years. Tonight is all yours.

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FOREWORD to "Ninety-Seven Days" Catalogue

“There are moments of existence when time and space are more profound, and the awareness of existence is immensely heightened”—these words written by nineteenth French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire form part of one of the most important manifestos in the history of art. At its surface, his is a call upon artists to observe and bring awareness to the modern world around them, to see and record the fleeting, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half he argues is the eternal and immutable. Writing at a moment of cultural crossroads and urban transformation in capitalist modernity not dissimilar from the one we occupy today, the core of Baudelaire’s concern was how “time” was increasingly seen as a commodity—something to be divided up, standardized, rationalized, and exploited, ruthlessly reminding all of us of our limitations and perceived value in measurable terms. For him, the antidote to such evisceration of time was an art that brought awareness to the chance and ephemerality that rose up in face of the increasing rationalization and standardization of life’s moments. In this way, artists were called upon not only to produce work, but also to give new value to time.

It is in this spirit of critical inquiry that I invite you to view "Ninety-Seven Days." At its most banal, the exhibition title describes the passage of time over a university semester that the assembled artists experienced together in collective duration. It is a reminder of the pressure, the call to action, the reckoning, and institutional evaluation that will earn them their long awaited university credential. In short, it is a chronicle about the work of making art. But at its most profound and heightened, ninety-seven days represents a dynamic engagement with time and ideas beyond measure and language that the audience will be called upon to recognize, glimpse, and re-value within themselves. Themes of ambiguity, isolation, meditative journeys, fading memories, mutations and lost stories, comingle with art that engages codes, space, reorientation, technology, nature, and the overcoming of tradition and obstacles. Indeed, if one of the jobs of art is to turn time into things worthy of critical reflection, these thirteen artists remind us that time will pass, and that we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use and highest level of awareness.

Dorothy Barenscott, Art Historian

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© Dorothy Barenscott, 2010-2025