EN
A contribution from the conference 'The Second Avant-garde' (part of the grant-funded project 'The Myths, Language, and Taboos of the Czech Post-Avant-garde from the Forties to the Sixties'), which was held on 23 October 2007. The article focuses on the discussion of the Avant-garde which took place in Czechoslovakia and in Western Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. It considers two artistic trends, the first of which followed on from the original Avant-garde, and the second of which claimed that it was impossible to follow on from, or come out of, the Avant-garde rejection of contemporary art. The article also takes into account the debate about when a work of art may truly be called Avant-garde, whether it is at the time the work is made or only later, from an historical perspective.