Call for Papers for the international
conference: The ”state artist” in Romania and Eastern
Europe
Faculty
of Political Science, University of Bucharest, 5 November 2016
The
establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe brought for the visual
arts, the establishment of the “state artist” (Haraszti). Artworks were commissioned
by the state, which offered extensive rewards for the artists, obliged to
comply with the political and ideological rigors of the regime. As part of the
research project “From the “state artist” to the artist dependent on the state:
the case of the Union of Visual Artists (1950-2010) – the Bucharest branch”,
this conference seeks to explore the different transformations that the artists
underwent in order to comply with the extensive role assumed by the totalitarian
state in the arts. We invite contributions on the broad topic announced, that
of the state artist in Romania and Eastern Europe with a specific focus on
visual arts, but we are also interested to discuss other instances of
collaboration with the regimes in place (1950s-1990). The conference aims to discuss
the state artist in the context of communist regimes from multiple points of
views. The topics discussed could be, but are not limited to:
-
How was the new artist shaped by the communist
regimes?
-
Were artists able to integrate Socialist Realism
as a mandatory style? If not, which were the limits of this mandatory style or
the national specificities?
-
Which were the types of resistance to the model
of the state artist?
-
How did Socialist Realism translate in different
visual practices?
-
What role did the Union of Visual Artists of
Romania play? How does it compare to other unions in the East?
-
What are the transformations of the unions of
artists after 1990?
Those
interested in presenting a paper should send an abstract of 500 words as well
as a short CV (including a short list of publications) to caterinapreda@gmail.com until the 15th of May 2016. A
selection of conference presentations will be published in a volume, thus the accepted
participants must send their contributions 1 month in advance (1st of October 2016). The
contributions must address the topic of the state artist, and must have 8.000
words including footnotes with a separate list of references. Organizing
committee: Caterina Preda, Alina Popescu, Dan Drăghia. Place: The Institute for
Political Research, Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest. The
languages of the conferences are Romanian, English, and French.
