Much has been made of

1. Does the green sentence mean:

Neo-avant-garde intended to bring art and life together in a way that would radically change the world. But it failed. Indeed this failure has been exaggerated?

2. Does the blue sentence mean:

it was an unfair exaggeration of a failure specially in the latter part of the twentiesth century. Because in that period artists were working against the forces and influences of consumerism, a consumerism that was brought by milder politics?

Context:

George Maciunas, founding member of Fluxus, clearly voiced a similar mission to that which had underpinned the central aims of the historical avant-garde – to take art away from the elitism of the gallery system and connect it with life: ‘The anti-art forms are directed primarily against art as a profession, against the separation of performer from audience, or creator and spectator, or life and art.’ What was missing from this equation between life and art was any real connection with radical politics, or the means to distribute this art to a significantly large audience. Indeed much has been made of the ‘political’ failure of the neo-avant-garde to bring art and life together in a way that would radically change the world– a somewhat unfair charge, particularly in the latter part of the twentieth century, with artists working in the face of the forces and influences of consumerism and complacency brought by more middle-of-the-road politics.