Postmodernism and the Postsocialist Condition

Abstract

In the last decades one of the more propulsive artistic phenomena in the world were (and often still are) the visual arts created in the socialist countries, these ranging from the Soviet Union (especially between the early seventies and the late eighties), Central and East European countries (in the eighties), Cuba (in the eighties), and P. R. China (from 1989 and still continuing). In the paper it shall be argued that this type of politicized late socialist art emerges in these countries in the period of their transition from the socialist into the postsocialist society and culture-to disappear or be essentially transformed with the demise of the political and social conditions wherein art and culture had the potential to be a pivotal means for expressing critical positions. Such art was only rarely causally related. It emerged from similar historical conditions of possibility and represented a distinct and specific instance of postmodernism. It should thus be regarded as a specific cultural phenomenon with the following properties being its main distinguishing characteristics: conceptualism; use of postmodern techniques and procedures; profuse use of socialist and communist imagery; use of national heritage and of folk, traditional, and mass culture; frequent use of what the author designates as the ”binary” artistic approach. It is especially this last feature which sharply distinguishes this type of art from its dissident predecessors.