In the shadow of Yalta : [art and] the avant-garde in Eastern Europe, 1945 - 1989

In this comprehensive study of the artistic culture of the region between the Iron Curtain and the former Soviet Union, Piotr Piotrowski chronicles the relationship between avant-garde art production and post–World War II politics in such Iron Curtain nations as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia. Featuring more than 200 images, most by artists largely unfamiliar to an English-speaking audience, In the Shadow of Yalta is a fascinating portrait of the inspiring art made in a region—and at a time—of critical importance in modern Europe. Imprint......Page 6 Introduction......Page 8 1 The Geography and History of Art in Eastern Europe......Page 12 2 The Surrealist Interregnum, 1945–8......Page 34 Part 2 Modernism and Totalitarianism......Page 60 3 The ‘Thaw’ and Art Informel......Page 62 4 Myths of Geometry......Page 106 5 Un-Socialist Realism......Page 148 6 The Critique of Painting: Towards the Neo-avant-garde......Page 179 Part 3 The Neo-avant-garde and ‘Real Socialism’ in the 1970s......Page 240 7 Mapping the Neo-avant-garde, c. 1970......Page 242 8 Conceptual Art between Theory of Art and Critique of the System......Page 316 9 The Politics of Identity: Male and Female Body Art......Page 342 Epilogue: The Spectres Haunting Eastern Europe in the 1980s......Page 392 References......Page 442 Acknowledgements......Page 477 Photo Acknowledgements ......Page 478 Index ......Page 482 In this comprehensive study of the artistic culture of the region between the Iron Curtain and the former Soviet Union, Piotr Piotrowski chronicles the relationship between avant-garde art production and post–World War II politics in such Iron Curtain nations as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia. Featuring more than two hundred images, most by artists largely unfamiliar to an English-speaking audience, In the Shadow of Yalta is a fascinating portrait of the inspiring art made in a region—and at a time—of critical importance in modern Europe. A comprehensive study of the artistic culture of the region between the Iron Curtain and the USSR, taking in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. It chronicles the relationship between art production and politics in this zone between the end of World War II and the fall of Communism. A comprehensive study of art and politics in Eastern Europe between the end of World War II and the fall of Communism, this title brings together a wide range of issues, including artistic problems, movements, attitudes, and kinds of expression, and compares and describes them to create a new art map of the region