CFP panel ASEEES “Creating for the state: forms of artistic (dis)engagement with the communist regimes. The unions of artists and the state artists”

49th Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies – ASEEES (9-12 November 2017, Chicago USA)

The theme of this year convention of the ASEEES is Transgressions. In this context, this panel seeks to bring together scholars interested by the study of the institutions of the unions of artists in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. They had at their fore the “state artists” (Haraszti), being given important commissions by the state institutions to create in the new ideological approach of Socialist Realism and its different, national adaptations. Some possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• the (creative) unions of artists (visual arts, music, theater, cinema)
• relations between the unions of artists
• the “state artists” – portraits of specific artists
• professional artists versus amateurs
• painting the leaders – the official iconography
• types of public orders
• the changing roles of the unions of artists after 1990/1991
• state exhibitions

Those interested should submit a 250 words abstract and a brief author biography to the chair Caterina Preda (caterinapreda@gmail.com) by February 10, 2017.