The state artist in Romania and Eastern Europe

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 15^th 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 (1^st 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.