The postsocialist contemporary joins a growing body of scholarship debating the definition and nature of contemporary art. It comes to these debates from a historicist perspective, taking as its point of departure one particular art programme, initiated in Eastern Europe by the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. First implemented in Hungary, the Soros Center for Contemporary Art (SCCA) expanded to another eighteen ex-socialist countries throughout the 1990s. Its mission was to build a western 'open society' by means of art. This book discusses how network managers and artists participated in the construction of this new social order by studying the programme's rise, evolution, impact and broader ideological and political consequences. Rather than recounting a history, its engages critically with 'contemporary art' as the aesthetic paradigm of late-capitalist market democracy.
| ISBN: | 9781526158000 |
| Publication date: | 23rd November 2021 |
| Author: | Octavian Esanu |
| Publisher: | Manchester University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 288 pages |
| Series: | Rethinking Art's Histories |
| Genres: |
History of art Social and cultural history |
The postsocialist contemporary joins a growing body of scholarship debating the definition and nature of contemporary art. It comes to these debates from a historicist perspective, taking as its point of departure one particular art programme, initiated in Eastern Europe by the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. First implemented in Hungary, the Soros Center for Contemporary Art (SCCA) expanded to another eighteen ex-socialist countries throughout the 1990s. Its mission was to build a western 'open society' by means of art. This book discusses how network managers and artists participated in the construction of this new social order by studying the programme's rise, evolution, impact and broader ideological and political consequences. Rather than recounting a history, its engages critically with 'contemporary art' as the aesthetic paradigm of late-capitalist market democracy.
The Postsocialist Contemporary features in the following genres: History of art, Social and cultural history
The Postsocialist Contemporary is available in Hardback
The Postsocialist Contemporary was written by Octavian Esanu and published by Manchester University Press
The Postsocialist Contemporary has 288 pages
Yes it is part of Rethinking Art's Histories series
£76.50