Handbook of Socialist Exhibition Cultures: International Art Exhibitions in the Socialist World 1947-1989
ed. Sven Spieker, with Polly Savage, Bojana Videkanic, and Christene d’Anca
The Handbook of Socialist Exhibition Cultures will be published by Toronto University Press in 2025. Consisting of 40+ individual articles about pivotal international art exhibitions in the Socialist World between 1947 and 1990, the Handbook is the first of its kind to examine international and transnational art exhibitions organized by socialist states and networks.While in recent years, exhibition history has become established as a crucial sub-field of 20th-century art studies, exhibitions in the post-WWII socialist world—including the Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe,Cuba, The People’s Republic of China, North Korea, Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique—have received limited attention, with most studies viewing them as part of isolated national histories. By contrast, this Handbook, apart from viewing such exhibitions as instances of Cold War diplomacy and as gestures of international solidarity, also treats them in a perspective that transcends national boundaries. Examining the mechanisms, relationships, and international agreements that enabled their organization, we view these exhibitions as expressions of a dense and active network that thrived beyond the exhibition circuits of the “West.”