Art, Architecture and Propaganda Under Socialism

The course explores how and what ideologies have informed visual aspects of art and architecture produced before and after the Velvet Revolution (1989) in what is now the Czech Republic. We look at individual pieces of art, architecture and material culture, propaganda posters and excerpts from movies, and search for ways in which they are in/formed by different ideologies. To achieve this, you are first introduced to a set of epistemological building blocks, i.e., themes and modes of thinking that have influenced the form of arts and visual culture, such as modernity, modernism, and the concept of ideology as such. This will provide you with a strong theoretical base. We will then proceed with methods available for researching the visual material that we explore throughout the course. You can add to this material as you travel around the CEE region because art and architecture created under the various socialist regimes between the late 1940s and 1980s has repercussions for what the CEE region looks like today. Moreover, as the Cold War rhetoric and politics currently undergoes a revival, the study material and its historical context also prove relevant for your understanding of the present geopolitical situation as it is reflected in different forms of art and visual culture.

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