[spectre] CFP: Conceptual Art in the Era of (Post)Socialism, session at AAH 2022 (London, 6-8 Apr 22)

[Andreas Broeckmann]

From: ArtHist.net Redaktion
Date: Oct 4, 2021
Subject: CFP: Sessions at AAH 2022 (London, 6-8 Apr 22)

Goldsmiths, University of London, Apr 6–08, 2022


[2] Roads to Convergence behind the Iron Curtain: Remapping Conceptual 
Art in the Era of (Post)Socialism

From: Maia Toteva, maia.toteva at ttu.edu
Date: 30 Sep 21
Deadline: 1 Nov 21

In 2010, the critic Peter Osborne argued that contemporary art is 
post-conceptual. Notwithstanding broad generalizations, it is undeniable 
that key traits of contemporary art are rooted in the notion of global 
conceptualism. Two decades after the closing of the blockbuster 
exhibition Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s, scholars 
still ponder the dilemma that propelled the show’s ambitious agenda. Was 
conceptualism a unified movement that emerged in the West and spread 
worldwide, or did unique local circumstances give birth to multiple 
conceptual trends in distant geographic regions? What factors 
facilitated the development of a global phenomenon, and what 
transcultural considerations prompted the shift from the formalist 
preoccupation with material objects toward broader attention to the 
ideas and conceptual framing of artworks?

Reviving the quandary, this session reconsiders the conceptual practices 
of the Eastern Bloc before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain. How 
did conceptual trends born in (post)socialist countries (e.g., Sots Art 
or Moscow conceptualism) relate to Western conceptual art, and how did 
such movements fit into the globalist narratives advanced by 
transnational alliances, international markets, and neoliberal 
ideologies? If Anglo-American conceptualism emerged in reaction to 
formalism as articulated by Clement Greenberg, while modernist movements 
in the Communist Bloc waned disrupted by socialist realism, what 
conditions prompted the inception of a “flexible and elastic” Eastern 
European conceptual art as a strategy of interrogating systems of 
socialism, capitalism, and political oppression? Raising such questions, 
we seek to reassess the role of (post)conceptual art in the eras of 
post-truth and post-socialism.

Call for Papers deadline: 1 November 2021. Please submit your paper 
proposal to the convenor: Maia Toteva, Texas Tech 
University, Maia.Toteva at ttu.edu  Please include in your proposal a clear 
paper title, a short abstract (max 250 words), your name and email.

Association for Art History Annual Conference

The 2022 Annual Conference will take place in person over three days 
from 6 - 8 April 2022. There will be up to 36 live parallel sessions 
with 4, 6, or 8 papers delivered in each session. There will be multiple 
sessions taking place each day.

All 2022 sessions are open to 25-minute paper proposals. Session 
Timetables will be available for downloading nearer the 
event: https://eu.eventscloud.com/website/5317/


Reference / Quellennachweis:
CFP: Sessions at AAH 2022 (London, 6-8 Apr 22). In: ArtHist.net, Oct 4, 
2021. <https://arthist.net/archive/34926>.