By Andrew Bay, UK
"Transavanguardia" is an Italian term that may be loosely translated as "Trans-avant-garde." The expression is generally attributed to Italian art critic Achille Bonito Oliva (b.1939). With this definition, he intended to capture the spirit of a vibrant artistic renaissance, which took the Italian art world by storm, from the late 1970s through the 1980s. Oliva eagerly wanted to describe this new movement, which he felt was now distinctly beginning to emerge from the outburst of avant-garde art, which had been produced in Europe and America, during the 1960s and 1970s. Thus the use of "trans," meaning "after" or "beyond," as a prefix to "avant-garde."
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