Living the Avant Garde

Join us for a panel discussion organized in conjunction with the publication of The Art of Living in Avant-Garde Paris: Ethics and Self-Making in Dada, Simultanism, and Surrealism (The University of Chicago Press, 2026). Speakers include Rachel Silveri (Associate Professor, University of Florida); Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen (Associate Professor, New York University, Institute of Fine Arts); and Michael Sanchez (Independent Scholar).

With The Art of Living in Avant-Garde Paris, Rachel Silveri takes a fresh look at the desire to unify art and life, an ambition long regarded as foundational to the European historical avant-gardes. She reveals how many early twentieth-century artists saw their own everyday lives—their bodies, identities, and relationships—as a type of creative material and a central component to their avant-garde practice. These artists abandoned traditional forms of artmaking and venues of art viewing, instead aspiring to integrate art with everyday life, creating an “art of living.”