Speaker

Lu Mingjun

Host

Lu Jie

Introduction

In the late 1960s, the rise of the new avant-garde  and its attacks on  institutional critique both marked the end of formalist criticism and opened up new critical and theoretical approaches. As a critical artistic practice in itself, the new avant-garde did away with the independent status and practice of criticism, especially that of individual judgment, which brought unprecedented challenges to the originally self-sufficient and autonomous practice. However, this did not mean that criticism disappeared. On the one hand, critical artistic praxis, curatorial practice and art writing replaced independent criticism. On the other, critical publications such as October gradually introduced new critical, theoretical and political viewpoints as it evolved. In this sense, October is both an art magazine and also an integral part of the American  Avant-garde . This could be said to be the most important ‘legacy’ of October.