Antipolitics in Central European Art

Art historians have tended to frame late-socialist Central European art as either 'totalitarian' or 'transitional'. This bold new book challenges this established viewpoint, contending that the artists of this era cannot be simply caricatured as dissident heroes, or easily subsumed into the formalist Western canon. Klara Kemp-Welch offers a compelling account of the ways in which artists in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary embraced alternative forms of action-based practice just as their dissident counterparts were formulating alternative models of politics - in particular, an 'antipolitics' of self- organisation by society. In doing so, she makes a case for the moral and political coherence of Central European art, theory and oppositional activism in the late-socialist period, arguing for the region's centrality to late-20th century intellectual and cultural history.This excellent book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to gain a fuller understanding of the art and culture of the 'other' Europe in the second half of the twentieth century, so long marginalized by Cold War optics, and for those interested in the chameleon strategies of artistic opposition.Susan E. Reid, Professor of Russian Visual Culture and Director of the Centre for Visual Studies, University of Sheffield (UK) Klara Kemp-Welch's book is illuminating and thoroughly written.Dr. Victor Tupitsyn, Emeritus Professor, Pace University, Westchester, New York (US)