State Construction and Art in East Central Europe, 1918-2018

This volume offers a comprehensive perspective on the relationship between the art scene and agencies of the state in countries of the region, throughout four consecutive yet highly diverse historical periods: from the period of state integration after World War I, through the communist era post 1945 and the time of political transformation after 1989, to the present-day globalisation (including counter-reactions to westernisation and cultural homogenisation). With twenty-three theoretically and/or empirically oriented articles by authors from sixteen countries (East Central Europe and beyond, including the United States and Australia), the book discusses interconnections between state policies and artistic institutions, trends and the art market from diverse research perspectives. The contributors explore subjects such as the impact of war on the formation of national identities, the role of artists in image-building for the new national states emerging after 1918, the impact of political systems on artists' attitudes, the discourses of art history, museum studies, monument conservation and exhibition practices. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, cultural politics, cultural history, and East Central European studies and history.

Agnieszka Chmielewska is Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre for Europe at the University of Warsaw. Irena Kossowska is Full Professor of Art History at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun and the Polish Institute of World Art Studies in Warsaw. Marcin Lachowski is Associate Professor at the Institute of Art History at the University of Warsaw.

Introduction Agnieszka Chmielewska, Irena Kossowska, and Marcin Lachowski PART I: Cultural Specificity of East Central Europe 1. History Too Fast Éva Forgács 2. Universal or National? Making Art on the European Periphery Agnieszka Chmielewska 3. The Concept of Eastern Art and Self-Historicisation: The Slovenian Case Nadja GnamuS PART II: Nation- and State-Building Processes 4. Performing Everyday Activity, Creating Eternal: Ukrainian Art on the Fronts of the First World War Sofia Korol 5. Civil War - Communist Upheaval - Attack of the White Slaughterers? The Civil Wars of 1917-1922 in Finnish and Soviet Karelian Literature Thekla Musäus 6. The Archipenko Brothers: Discussion about National Art Vita Susak PART III: Aestheticization of Politics - Ideologization of Aesthetics 7. In/Tolerance to Visual Anti-Semitism in Czechoslovakia 1918-1948 Milan Pech 8. Art History and State Reconstruction in Greece in the 1950s and Early 1960s Lefteris Spyrou 9. Contesting Legitimacy: From the Photo Club to Fine Art Subjective Documentary-Andrejs Grants. Latvia: Changing and Unchanging Reality Pamela M. Browne 10. "Poles Forming Their National Flag": Artistic Reflection on the Transformation of the Political System in Post-1989 Central and Eastern Europe Piotr Majewski PART IV: Art Exhibitions as Political Instrument 11. Western Modern Art Exhibitions in the USSR in 1930s-1950s Katarina Lopatkina 12. "The Lenin of Soviet Art Has Not Yet Been Born": Nascent Socialist Realism in Warsaw of 1933 Irena Kossowska 13. From Hanoi and Havana to Paris and New York: Czecho-Slovak Cultural-Diplomatic Exhibitions during the Cold War Mária OriSková 14. 1956. Old Masters and the Ephemeral Borders Patricia García-Montón González 15. Somewhere Something Pavlína Morganová 16. Dreams and Nightmares: Nationalism in Art Exhibitions from Socialist Romania 1974-1989 Cristian Nae 17. Local/Global Latvian Art at the Venice Biennale Stella PelSe 18. "Grey in Colour" - Observations on the Reconstruction of Modernity Marcin Lachowski PART V: Architecture as Vehicle for State Cultural Policy 19. Cities in Interbellum Lithuanian Republic (1918-1940) Paulius Tautvydas Laurinaitis 20. About Two Gems in the Stadtkrone of Kaunas, the Provisional Capital of Interwar Lithuania Giedre Jankeviciute 21. An Elite Place for the Masses: Prague Castle and its Role in the Legitimisation of Socialist Rule in Czechoslovakia (1948-1968) Veronika Rollová 22. One Ideology, Two Visions: Ecclesiastical Buildings and State Identity in the Socialist Capital During the Post-War Rebuilding Decades 1945-1975, East Berlin and Warsaw Marcus van der Meulen 23. Monument Preservation during Socialism: Restorations and Reconstructions of Hungarian Roman Catholic Churches in the 1960-70s Erzsébet Urbán