Constellational Modernisms: “Socialist Humanism” and “Contextual Art” in Ion Bitzan and Wanda Mihuleac’s Graphic Art of the 1970s

Art exhibitions acted as facilitators of transnational encounters among artists during the Cold War. This article analyzes the emergence and local circulation of two art critical concepts which described adaptations of art practices and techniques associated with Pop art and conceptual art in Romanian graphic arts of the 1970s as an expanded artistic medium. Focusing on the way Romanian artists Ion Bitzan and Wanda Mihuleac adjusted their experimental art practices to suit different audiences in state-supported exhibitions such as the Romanian Pavilions in Venice or the Ljubljana Graphic Arts Biennale, as well as in other large-scale exhibitions organized in Romania and abroad, the text helps undermine the distinction between official and unofficial art in art under socialism. It argues for the continuities between artistic experimentation in the two spheres of artistic activity and proposes a constellational reading of their graphic art practices as examples of modernisms in translation.

ARTMargins, Volume 13, Issue 2, pp. 45-64.

doi:10.1162/artm_a_00383

https://direct.mit.edu/artm/article/13/2/45/122638/Constellational-Modernisms-Socialist-Humanism-and

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