The word "avant-garde" comes from the French language and means "vanguard" or "advance guard" in English. Originating in France in the first half of the nineteenth century, it is often believed to have been coined by the socialist movement's early theorist Henri de Saint-Simon in the context of visual art. He had faith in the transformative potential of art for society and envisioned creative types, alongside scientists and industrialists, as the vanguards of the next industrialized civilization.

The realist paintings of Gustave Courbet, inspired by early socialist beliefs, are often seen as marking the beginning of the avant-garde in the 1850s. The word "avant-garde" has come to mean "modern" in recent years since this is what came after the many contemporary art groups.

While certain avant-garde groups, like cubism, put more emphasis on formal breakthroughs, others, including futurism, De Stijl, and surrealism, had more overtly political agendas.

To this day, the word "avant-garde" is still used to describe work that is "radical" or "reflects the originality of vision," even though it was first intended to describe the creative methods of artists creating in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Art is to be evaluated mainly on the strength of the artist's vision and the freshness of their ideas; this principle is central to the avant-garde.

Inevitably, avant-garde artists and works will be met with criticism due to the radical character of their work and the fact that they question established ideas, methods, and canons.