Art and Theory of Post-1989 Central and Eastern Europe: A Critical Anthology takes the dramatic political changes during the pivotal years between 1989 and 1991 as its departure point, reflecting on the effects of the disintegration of socialist states across Central and Eastern Europe on art, theory, and criticism of the last thirty years. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the social and political transformations that followed from Bucharest to Prague to Moscow marked a significant moment when artists were able to publicly reassess their histories and to question the opposition between East and West that defined the Cold War era.

 

Featuring key voices that span the post-transition period, from the early 1990s to the present, this book makes an indispensable contribution to our understanding of modern and contemporary art from the region, with particular focus on the work of a new generation of artists, scholars, and curators who offer fresh critical perspectives and are still rewriting their own histories. Their research on artistic practices and systems of cultural production proposes distinct strategies for acting in the contemporary world and reevaluating the significance of the socialist legacy, a task made ever more urgent by the political realities of today. 408pp; 64 illus.