The term Avant-garde arose sometime in the 18th century and is a bi-product of modernism and post-modernism. In the late 18th century the artists of the Dada movement and the situationalists associated themselves with the Avant-garde movement. Essentially the Avant-garde resists the products of consumerism such as kitsch and the cliché and embraces artists marginalized by mainstream commercial values (This definition is elaborated in Clement Greenberg's 1939 essay "Avant-Garde and Kitsch"). During a particular cultural movement the Avant-garde leads society in a certain direction, opening up new discourses and ideas; while the cliche and kitsch respond to the movement with disregard to aesthetics and cultural relevance.
The challenge that artist's face today is how to escape the cliché and turn their work into something that is new, innovative, and changes the way we see or think, occasionally known as a trope (defined as a conventional idea or phrase). The following contemporary art pieces are good examples of tropes where the artists have managed to escape clichés.
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