SESSION: Horizontal Art History in Global Context: East Central Europe in the Present
In 2008, the Polish art historian Piotr Piotrowski published “On the Spatial Turn, or Horizontal Art History,” critiquing the marginalization of modern east-central Europe in art history. Since then, international scholarship on the art of, for example, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland or Czechoslovakia has expanded significantly; globalized horizons have also placed east-central Europe in new contexts that potentially break down intra-European boundaries that traditionally isolated the region, and enable a redrawing of the art history map.
Yet, has the situation fundamentally improved? Has east-central Europe gained a more prominent place in university curricula? Many find hopes for change unmet. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 revealed persistent blind spots, with east-central Europe still little known and often viewed through a Moscow-centric lens. In addition, decolonial impulses mean that east-central Europe is increasingly deprioritized in favour of the global South. Recognition of the contingent status of geopolitical identities also raises the question as to what it even means to talk of “east central Europe” in a globalised geography of art.
This panel invites papers addressing the place of east-central Europe in contemporary global art history. Piotrowski’s essay was the product of a particular moment. Does it still have relevance, or has it been superseded by new concerns? Global histories of east central Europe have challenged older perspectives, but is it meaningful to proceed as if east central Europe were still a coherent zone of interest? Or do we, in doing so, fall back into a long tradition of east-central European exceptionalism?
Session Convenors:
Matthew Rampley, Masaryk University, Brno
Nóra Veszprémi, Aberystwyth University
Session Speakers:
Cara Zhao, Durham University
Before Horizontal Art History: East-Central European Exhibitions in 1950s China
This paper revisits Piotr Piotrowski’s notion of “horizontal art history” through socialist-era cultural exchanges between East-Central Europe and China. Between 1953 and 1958, a series of exhibitions from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Yugoslavia circulated
across Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities as part of the rhetoric of “socialist friendship.”While the relationships between China and East-Central Europe in subsequent decades have been fraught and uneven, this early “friendship project” under the aegis of socialist
internationalism offers a lens to understand how horizontal art histories were once produced through less visible, non-Western networks within a bipolar world order. The paper situates these exhibitions within what might be called a “previously horizontal” era, following Piotrowski’s call to trace an international version of socialist realism. If the artistic exchanges among socialist countries in the 1950s forged a parallel trajectory to modernist internationalism, they invite a rethinking of East-Central European art as embedded in transcontinental dialogues rather than confined to regional isolation. Drawing on archival materials and Chinese publications, this paper reconsiders East-Central Europe’s active role in global art history by uncovering its participation in shaping a shared socialist visual
culture.
Anna-Marie Kroupová, University of Vienna
Piotrowski Goes Global: From Horizontal Art History to Horizontal Attentiveness
Nearly two decades after Piotrowski notion of “horizontal art history,” his concept has firmly cemented itself in the theoretical canon of East Central Europe. Developed in the context of the EU’s enlargement, it sought to level hierarchies between Western and Eastern European art scenes. Today, global and decolonial perspectives urge us to critically revise this framework still relying on Eurocentric assumptions: Although global art history became more inclusive, it often accomplishes this by simply expanding an existing Western framework rather than reconsidering how the underlying relationships are structured. This paper reinterprets Piotrowski’s model as “horizontal attentiveness,” an epistemological stance that cautions scholars against vertical ‘logics of influence’ and calls for analysing different contexts with equal intensity, a practice still rare in global (art) histories. Using this method, I examine the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, where students from the Global South received state scholarships during the late Cold War, based on archival research and interviews. I argue that horizontality is not about regional equalization but an approach that acknowledges historical asymmetries between actors, institutions, and power structures, shifting focus from homogenizing notions of “region” to specific institutions and individual
trajectories that have historically shaped East-South relations. My model combines Piotrowski’s framework of global map linking uneven contexts unbiased, decolonial theory which interprets them through power imbalances, and mobility studies with the dimension of
agency within hierarchical structures. From the resulting ‘double-margin’ between “Central Europe” and the “Global South,” this approach proposes an alternative art-historical cartography that challenges dominant Western narratives.
Kornelia Jowita Starczewska, Independent researcher / Desa Unicum / Foundation – Nowymodel.org
Beyond Centres: A revival of Polish mid-century modern furniture
Drawing on Polish case studies, this paper shows how post-socialist countries used the idiom of modernism to renegotiate their relationships with global cultural hubs at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The contemporary re-editions of furniture designed before 1989 (the fall of communism in Poland) reveal alternative geographies of modernism. Designers across the Eastern Bloc were partly separated from the international design scene; yet experimental projects existed as prototypes – often sidelined because they did not represent mass and low-cost industrial production. Working within Piotr Piotrowski’s horizontal art history, the paper addresses the longstanding marginalisation of furniture design and challenges centre-periphery models that privilege Western Europe as the default reference point. I contend that design culture in socialist Poland emerged from a synthesis of modernist ideas and craft traditions as designers operated within semi-permeable circuits of exchange. Methodologically, I draw on archival sources, press reports and exhibition materials, combined with visual analysis, and interviews with contemporary producers of reissued furniture. I operationalise Péter György’s “nylon curtain” through four indicators: ideas/designs, materials/technologies and distribution channels to trace a full re-edition cycle from archive to actual production, marketing and reception in interiors. Findings show a functional shift from mass-use goods, especially chairs, to carriers of heritage, nostalgia and status. Similar heritage-framing practices are evident across both Eastern and Western Europe, including Slovakia, Denmark, France, and Italy, underscoring the transnational character of mid-century modern revivals.
Jan Elantkowski, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
Writing Art History in Taiwan and Central-Eastern Europe: Comparative Approaches to Writing Peripheral Art Histories
This paper presents the author’s research conducted as an International Residency Fellow at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung. It explores the parallels between the processes of writing art history in Taiwan – examined through the project “Reconstructing the History of Art in Taiwan” – and the ongoing developments in art-historical narratives in Central and Eastern Europe. The study examines how Taiwan, through institutional efforts, constructs its own historical and artistic narratives while negotiating its position within broader global discourses on art history. By situating Taiwan’s approach within a comparative framework, particularly from the perspective of Central and Eastern European art history, I underscore shared challenges in constructing art historical narratives in contexts traditionally marginalized within dominant Western frameworks.
Although the Taiwanese and Central-Eastern European contexts differ significantly in terms of cultural and geopolitical backgrounds, there are notable parallels. In Taiwan, the writing of art history is closely tied to the construction of national identity, shaped by historical influences from China, Japan, and the West. In Central and Eastern Europe, art-historical writing has been framed within a regional context, shaped by shared historical experiences under Communism and by the struggle for cultural autonomy amid shifting political borders.
By examining these parallel yet distinct historiographical challenges, this paper contributes to a comparative understanding of how peripheral art histories are constructed and legitimized, fostering a productive dialogue between Taiwanese and Central-Eastern European perspectives on art history, identity, and institutional narratives.