Latest Program and Travel Information

Please find the latest version of the conference program here. We do not anticipate any significant changes at this stage, but any changes that do occur will be updated on the website, so watch this space.

Vital information on travel and logistics is available here. Please be sure to print off a copy of this to bring with you to ensure that you find your way to the venues with the minimum of difficulty.

Draft papers and pre-conference registration

Please submit draft papers to o.johnson@sheffield.ac.uk in pdf of doc format by Friday 5 October. These drafts will be collected in a googledocs folder, which will be shared with conference participants only. Please inform me if for any reason you are unwilling to share your draft paper in this way.

Many thanks!

Provisional program now available

The provisional conference program is now available. Please let us know if you spot any mistakes or would like any changes made to your paper titles.

Papers will be pre-circulated via a (password protected) link on this website. Please submit papers to o.johnson(at)sheffield.ac.uk by 1 October. Any changes to abstracts and paper titles should also be made by this date.

We look forward to seeing you in a couple of months!

Important venues for the conference

Please see the map for a list of venues, recommended hotels for a variety of budgets and transport information. We recommend that participants arrive Thursday 18 October in order to begin the conference at 9am on Friday 19 October at Södertörn University, which is a short train ride from Stockholm City Centre. Day 2 of the conference will take place at the Modern Museet and social activities will take place in downtown Stockholm, so suggested accommodation is located in this area with easy access to transport links. The map will be updated with further information in due course. Any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.


View Socialist Realist Art: Production, Consumption, Aesthetics in a larger map

Reminder: CFP deadline approaching

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

*Keynote speaker: Boris Groys*

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 diverse interests and influences which contributed to the ongoing and heterogeneous development of Socialist Realist 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 pictoral 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 socio-political 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 23 April 2012. Applicants will be informed about acceptance after 1 May 2012.

Contacts

For general questions and further information, please contact Mark Bassin (mark.bassin@sh.se).

Please submit proposals via email to Oliver Johnson (o.johnson@sheffield.ac.uk)

For new and updated information visit: http://socialistrealistart.blogspot.co.uk/