OBT's 2010 Spring Magazine

What? A Canadian avant-garde? Is that not an oxymoron? Certainly, the answer depends on who you ask -- and, perhaps more importantly, how hard you are willing to work to find an answer. No matter what definition you follow, though, and in a future post I may float a few current theories, Canadian artists have reached the avant-garde and even led the odd advance.

Over the next month, I have a few goals for this space: first-off, to introduce Bertram Brooker, ostensibly Canada's first avant-gardist; second, to highlight some contemporary work and discuss it in relation to various ideas of avant-gardism (ie. can a nature poem be avant-garde?); and third, to create a forum to discuss general ideas, events, and writings.