A Defence of the Cognitive Value of Contemporary Avant-Garde Art

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My project will critically examine the cognitive value of contemporary avant-garde art. This project seeksto answer two questions:1. Why is 'avant-garde' an appropriate concept to capture certain critical practices of contemporary artfor art history and philosophy?2. How can contemporary philosophy, particularly epistemology, help to explain the cognitive ambitionsof contemporary avant-garde art?Certain practices which have reached maturation after 1989 have sought to expand the formalboundaries of art in order to challenge viewers to shift their thinking about the world they inhabit. In thisway, they have ambitions that are continuous with those art historians demarcate as 'avant-garde'.Current philosophy of art struggles to account for this work. Philosophical tools must be developed tooffer better analyses.The novel answer that I propose is to focus on how these practices seek and succeed in shifting ourepistemic standing in the world by contributing to our understanding. This is exemplified by how theseworks guide our imagining, and reveal marginalised epistemic positions. Grasping the cognitive value ofcontemporary avant-garde art will help to bring advanced philosophical work into connection withadvanced art practice.