György Péter, Turai Hedvig: Art and Society in the Age of Stalin
"Stalinism is no longer an enemy. Instead, it has become an object for inquiry. We can take it in our hands, turn it around and examine itin the same way that we can examine a decayed tooth after its extraction. 'So it was this that caused all our suffering,' we might say." Thus writes Akos Szilagyi, one of the contributors to the present volume. An era may well have come to an end, but, for the peoples of Eastern Europe, reminders of it live onnot just in the form of grandiose architecture, but in small things too. What kind of art was it thatout of prudishnessput clothes onto athletes and headscarves onto women? Under Stalinism, art was regulated in the same way as the planned economy. Political considerations determined the interior decoration of coffee-shops, the shape of cupboards, and the deportment of fashion models in the same way that they shaped the character of films, statues, and the enormous slogan-bearing placards intended for the edification of the public. All this stemmed not from artistic creativity, but from the demands of the Party. Like Nazism, Stalinism saw art as a powerful tool, although there were differences, as well as similarities, in the way it was viewed by these two doctrines. It is easy to pass judgment on the cliches of the agethe "Struggle for Peace", and "Stalin the Wise, Father of the Peoples". One can smile at the Stakhanovite movement and at an art fostering optimism and contentment. More useful, though, is a sober investigation of the whole phenomenon of Stalinism. This richly-illustrated book, containing twelve studies by leading Hungarian scholars, is an attempt to provide just this by examining such things as the painting, sculpture and architecture of the time. The present work seeks neither to eulogize nor to execrate the art of the Stalinist Period. Its aim is merely to promote a better understanding of an ideology which whether we like it or nothas left an appreciable mark on the twentieth century.
Release/year: Corvina / 1992
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