Introduction

Abstract

The principal aims of the SocialEast Forum on the Art and Visual Culture of Eastern Europe are to encourage comparative research into the art history of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe and to examine how a revised understanding of the achievements and circumstances of East European art impacts on global interpretations of art history. The texts in this special issue reflect the interdisciplinary approach taken, with contributions from art historians, philosophers and curators. Subjects covered range from the experimental theatre of post‐Revolutionary Russia to revisionist interpretations of Soviet monumental sculpture, new perspectives on the competing histories of conceptual art in Eastern Europe and reflections on the memory of Communism in contemporary art. The legacy of East European art is addressed in terms of its heterogeneity, disobedience to accepted canons, and the quality of much of the art produced operating subversively within the system or within alternative cultural settings.