Module Directory

Through a series of case studies, this module will introduce students to post-war artistic production in Central Europe--the former communist states located between the Iron Curtain and the Soviet Union.

Studying key artistic developments in the region, this module will pose questions about the very category of the `neo-avant-garde`: its applicability to non-Western practices and its relationship to the pre-war avant-gardes.

The aims of this module are:

• To introduce students to specialised debates in past and recent literature in the history of art and/or architecture.


• To explore different approaches, methodologies and arguments relating to the material of study.


• To raise student awareness of different methods of approaching the discipline through cutting edge and innovative research.


• To situate Central Europe within global developments in post-war art.


• To stimulate students to develop skills in written communication through essay and oral communication and debate in seminars.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Demonstrate engagement with the main themes are ideas that inform the module.


2. Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure.


3. Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.


4. Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them.


5. Think 'laterally' and creatively – see interesting connections and possibilities and present these clearly rather than as vague hunches.


6. Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position if shown wrong.


7. Demonstrate the ability to think critically and constructively.

Neo-Avant-Gardes in Central Europe

Instead of strengthening the East/West binary opposition, the module will look at a broad range of artistic production, from painting to performance, in order to situate Central Europe within and in relation to global developments in art following the Second World War. In doing so, it will introduce students to a variety of artistic movements, some largely unique to specific countries (thus challenging the perceived homogeneity of the region) and some stretching far beyond national borders.

Topics will include

• Artistic Networks and Mail Art.


• Central European Conceptualisms.


• The Warsaw Foksal Gallery.


• Abstraction and New Tendencies in Zagreb.


• Feminism, Gender and Performance under Communism.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 2-hour seminar per week.
• One reading week with no seminars.

Discussion will be encouraged throughout..