Avant Essay

8 Essays

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Avant Essays are short(ish) opinions on art, written by anyone with an opinion on art.

Avant Essays

Pharrell Williams by Sam Hellmann for The New York Times

Bella Hadid for Yayoi Kusama x Louis Vuitton, 2023

Louis Vuitton Capucines by Henry Taylor, 2020  by Henry Taylor, 2020 

Yves Saint Laurent, Homage to Mondrian, 1965

Virgil Abloh by Dominique Charriau, 2019

Tyrell Winston x Aimé Leon Dore, English Breakfast, 2022  

Kerry James Marshall x Wales Bonner, photo by Tyler Mitchell, 2022 

From Dali x Schiaparelli to Kusama x Louis Vuitton, fashion and art collaborations go way back. As Fashion Week begins, discover the history behind some of the most iconic cultural collaborations. 

X Marks the Spot – A history of collaboration in art and fashion

X Marks The Spot – A History of Art and Fashion Collaborations

Charlie Ahearn and Fred Brathwaite at Wild Style Mural, 1983. Photo by Martha Cooper.

Fab 5 Freddy, Campbell’s Soup, 1981. Photo by Martha Cooper.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart), 1983

De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising, 1989

Mr. and Pharrell Williams, A Call to Action, Perrotin, 2019

The Carters, Apeshit, 2018

Jay-Z and Marina Abramovic, Picasso Baby, 2013

KAWS X Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak, 2008

Wu-Tang Clan, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, 2015

Kerry James Marshall, School of Beauty, School of Culture, 2012

Jordan Casteel, Miles and Jojo, 2015

Fab 5 Freddy Photo by

Avant Essay, Bridging the gap between Hip-Hop and Art

This is the story all about how hip-hop and art have propelled each other to global domination. From graffiti on the streets of the Bronx to record breaking auction results, hip-hop giants continue to make waves in the artworld. 

Bridging the gap: how 50 years of hip-hop has changed the artworld 

Bridging the Gap: How 50 Years of Hip Hop has changed the artworld 

Barbie Billboard

Margot Robbie in American Vogue

Valentino AW22

Acne Studios

Glossier

Mamie Eisenhower (doll)

Jayne Mansfield

Janelle Monae

Judy Chicago

Silence = Death

Pink Room, Portia Munson, 2018

Kim Kardashian and James Turrell

Untitled Anthropometry, Yves Klein, 1960

Schiaparelli AW23

Barbie Movie 04

This shade can be delicate, sensual, hedonistic and irreverent. Pink does its best when freed from cultural meaning. It has the quality of being strong, without actually wanting to.

Barbie Movie Trailer

Avant Essay, Barbie Pink

Barbie is everywhere, but what's pink got to do with it?

Barbie Pink

Graffiti all started with tagging. Just big tags that got bigger, then got filled in, wider and wider, then outlined, then it went off from that.

Taki 183

Multiple tags on a wall

Throw ups

Dubs - Fume

Piece by Revok

It’s a logo, nahmean, and with that you can take it beyond, it’s basically like the UPC symbol (barcode), nahmsayin? It gets scanned, it gets scanned everyday by the human eyes.

Tag Futura 2000

Utah and Ether Tag

And behind every tag is a story about survival and about striving to be seen, or a momentary reprieve from deprivation and desperation.

Basquiat Tag

O'Clock, Paris

What seems to happen is people say, ‘Fuck the system,’ for as long as they have stamina, until they get overwhelmed by it.

Graffiti Tag Sign 

Jose Parla Canvas

It’s still one of the last things that I think hasn’t been, like, corrupted. There’s droves and droves of kids that still do it

Barry McGee Tag

The satisfaction that you have something sitting out there, for however long, amongst everything else. It just had a life, and it would go and it went, and then that was it. You have this memory.

10 foot in Milan

Avant Essay, Are graffiti tags the purest art form

Tagging offers no reward beyond the rush of its creation, and the chance to be part of something bigger.

Are graffiti tags the purest art form?

Beyonce 01

Vaginal Davis 01

Jenna Gribbon 02

Jenna Gribbon 01

Katherina Olschbaur 01

Katherina Olschbaur 02

Sola Olulode 02

Sola Olulode 01

Monica Kim Garza 03

Monica Kim Garza 02

Janelle Monae 02

Janelle Monae 01

Janelle Monae 04

Avant Essay, Art in the Age of Femme Pleasure

As Janelle Monáe’s new album heralds the age of pleasure, femme visual artists are also imagining sexualities liberated from the male gaze.

Art in the Age of Femme Pleasure

Taking a seat is a universal act of leisure and calm. I wanted to create a monumental sculpture for the public that spoke to this simple joy. The woman is strong, beautiful and self-possessed. She represents all individuals, but women in particular, who understand the power and importance of gestures that assert their right to take up space.

Seated at the De La Warr Pavillion

Obscene hate crimes like this demonstrate how much still needs to be done in the UK to fight racism, challenge discrimination and encourage diversity. As an artist exploring ideas about the black body (and predominantly female ones) Tschabalala Self’s work does just this. We laud Tschabalala and the De La Warr Pavilion’s gesture of involving the local community in the sculpture's restoration; significantly bringing people together in a positive act of resistance.

Seated 04

Seated

Black, female – and especially Black female bodies – are often targets for abuse. Seated proudly represents the beauty of both blackness and femininity, and for these very reasons she has been harmed.

Seated cover

Amidst necessary yet complex questions of representation, it’s important for curators and institutions to think carefully about what kind of responses artists are exposed to in the places where their work is put. This is most obvious, perhaps, when we consider art in the public domain. We can't ignore the reality that while some works are allowed to exist as isolated objects, others become symbols – targets, even – for the labels attached to their subjects and makers.

It’s tempting to remember the schoolchildren who passed the sculpture each day in Coal Drops Yard – parking their scooters and dropping their bags to marvel at her – rather than the actions of one hateful individual. However, having witnessed the response of local and global communities, it becomes clear that what began as a violation is now a part of the artwork’s story too. No one asked for proof that we need big and beautiful artworks like Tschabalala’s in public life for all to see, but now we have it.

The simple joy of sitting

Avant Essay, Is racism the price we pay for representation?

Tschabalala Self’s sculpture was vandalised by racists who painted her skin white – symbolically erasing exactly what it was intended to represent.

Is racism the price we pay for representation?

Seated by Tschabalala Self: Is racism the price we pay for representation?

Artworks by emerging artist Bora: I will be your wings, 2022. Coif, 2022

Nina Chanel Abney, Super Cool World, 2022.

I personally didn’t have queer representations when I was a teenager. So if digital art can support the young people and give them love too, that’s amazing.

Bora, My Body, My Castle, 2022

 Alida Sun, Day 1432, 2023

Sarah Zucker: The Light Witch

An original Bansky being burnt and live streamed by blockchain company, Injective

Bansky, Love is in the Air, 2005, courtesy of Particle.

Bora, 2022

Are NFTs queerer than we think?

When it comes to diversity, NFTs don’t have the best rep. But the good news is that countless underground and established queer artists are embracing this relatively young art history.

The Life od Pablo, Album cover, 2016

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937

Photography by Kevin Mazur. Kanye West at Donda listening party, 22 July 2021

Yeezy Season 3

Avant Essay, I feel like Pablo

Kanye West named Pablo Picasso as one of his role models, but the two of them have more than art in common. What do we do about our problematic faves? Can you separate the art from the artist?

I feel like Pablo

Guerrilla Girls 02

Guerrilla Girls 04

MoMA loves DaDA not MaMA

Guerrilla Girls 06

Guerrilla Girls 07

Guerrilla Girls 01

Avant Essay, The Guerrilla Girls

From the streets to the Supreme Court, the punk feminist art collective are still fighting for social justice in the art world and beyond.