[oberlist] SE* cfp/conf: Socialist Realist Art: Production, Consumption, Aesthetics, Stockholm, 19-20 October 2012

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---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [BAN] CfP: Socialist Realist Art: Production, Consumption,
Aesthetics, Stockholm, 19-20 October 2012
From:    "Archer, Rory (rory.archer at uni-graz.at)" <rory.archer at uni-graz.at>
Date:    Sun, March 4, 2012 11:50 am
To:      "balkans at list.uni-graz.at" <balkans at list.uni-graz.at>
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From: Serguei A. Oushakine <oushakin at Princeton.EDU>

SOCIALIST REALIST ART: PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION, AESTHETICS

An International Conference, sponsored by the Center for Baltic and East
European Studies, Södertörn University, Stockholm, in collaboration with
the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm
Stockholm, 19-20 October 2012

Since the early 1990s, there has been a striking growth of interest in the
legacy of Soviet Socialist Realist art, which has reshaped our
understanding of it in fundamental ways. A substantial body of research
has demonstrated that the method of Socialist Realism was a highly
creative and diversified cultural arena that was both heterogeneous in its
pictorial strategies and often conflicted and ambivalent in its
representations of the social and political messages of the day. Yet the
label 'totalitarian' continues to influence the ways in which Soviet art
is interpreted and contextualised, limiting our understanding of Socialist
Realism and obstructing its integration into a broader narrative of
twentieth-century art.

In the proposed conference we seek to examine the interests and influences
which contributed to the development of Socialist Realism as a diverse and
contested field of art from the 1930s
to the 1980s. Participants will be invited to focus on aspects of
Socialist Realist fine art production, evaluation and consumption in order
to consider the ways in which artistic conventions of pictorial
representation were established, adapted and transformed to reflect the
changing nature of the Soviet project. This approach will facilitate a
shift away from the tendency to draw conclusions about Socialist Realism
based on a limited number of canonical works of art and acclaimed artists,
and will encourage a reappraisal of the diversity and originality of
creative output in its formal, stylistic and geographical variations.

Proposed topics may include (but should not be restricted to) the following:

· How did Socialist Realist art develop over time and according to
changing sociopolitical contexts? On what basis should specific periods
can be identified, for example “Stalinist” or “post-Stalinist” art?
· What were the variations in Socialist Realist art beyond Moscow and
Leningrad: across the different parts of the RSRSR and the other SSRs? How
did the centre-periphery relationship function in the Soviet art world?
· Who were the audiences for Socialist Realist art and how was fine art
consumed in the Soviet Union?
· What was the role of the art critic in the definition of artistic merit?
How was value and significance ascribed to works of art in the absence of
an art market?
· What was the role of the state in the definition of Socialist Realist
art and how was the interface between artists and art world authorities
managed?
· What was the status of minor genres within the canon of Socialist
Realist art (e.g. landscape, still life, personal portraiture) and what
new and hybrid genres emerged?
· How did artists seek to manipulate the development of Socialist Realism
according to their own aesthetic preferences and agendas?
· How did Socialist Realist art in the USSR relate to broader
international narratives of Realism in the visual arts of the twentieth
century?
· How did Soviet Socialist Realism relate to the art sponsored by other
authoritarian regimes, in the inter-war period and after? Is “totalitarian
art” a viable concept?
· How did the ideas and methods of Socialist Realist art relate to
developments in other fields of cultural production in the USSR and vice
versa? Was Socialist Realism a uniform canon, or did it vary across the
fields of art, literature, music, film, architecture and so on?

Proposals for Papers
We invite proposals dealing with these or related themes. Proposals should
include your name, institutional affiliation, email address, proposed
paper title, 150-word abstract and
short curriculum vitae. Post-graduate students are encouraged to apply.
Successful applicants will be asked to submit a conference paper of around
3000 words for pre-circulation before
the conference.

Participants will be asked to cover their own travel expenses. We are
currently exploring possibilities for support for accommodation expenses.
The submission deadline for proposals is 20 April 2012. Applicants will be
informed about acceptance by around 1 May 2012.

Contacts   For general questions and further information, please contact
Mark Bassin (mark.bassin at sh.se).
Please submit proposals via email to Oliver Johnson
(o.johnson at sheffield.ac.uk)

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