27. - 28. 11. 2014 / Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Avant-Garde and Modernism: The Impact of WWI

Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Avant-Garde and Modernism: The Impact of WWI / Akademické konferenční centrum / Praha / 27. – 28. 11. 2014

International workshop

Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in the Avant-Garde and Modernism: The Impact of WWI

Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague

27–29 November 2014

This workshop follows up on discussions that were initiated at an international symposium in Stockholm: The European Artistic Avant–Garde c. 1910-1930: Formations, Networks and Transnational Strategies (11–13 September 2013). It focuses on one particular aspect of the avant-garde and modernism, namely, the clash therein of the national, the transnational and the cosmopolitan. In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, but to some extent in Scandinavia too, the struggle for national independence, which in most cases began in the 19th century and culminated during and after World War I, had important cultural and artistic consequences. The symposium will track the changes in and compare the nationalist rhetorics in modern and avant-garde art just before the outbreak of WWI, as well as during and after the war. After 1917 the map of Europe changed dramatically. A number of new, independent states were established, and these developments found expression in every genre of the visual arts and transformed the image of the continent. The papers presented in this workshop focus primarily, but not exclusively, on modernism and the avant-garde in Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Scandinavia. There are also papers that describe the dissemination and translation of avant-garde language in regions and countries at the fringes of Europe. Some questions we would like to discuss are: How was the understanding of nationalism and the post-WWI avant-garde affected by historiography, especially that of the 1950s and later? To what extent were nationalism and cosmopolitanism part of avant-garde and modern-art discourse before WWI and how did the understanding of them change during the war? What relationship did the avant-garde have to traditional and to official art in terms of their views on nationalism? What different kinds of nationalisms resulted from the national revival movements of Czechs, Croats, Slovenes and Poles in the late 19th century within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or of Poles and Lithuanians in Czarist Russia? And, on the other side, in what sense was the postwar avant-garde in the newly founded countries (Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Baltic States etc.) an expression of cosmopolitanism? The workshop will serve as a platform for rethinking the methodological tools we use to understand and explain the complexity and the multiplicity of avant-garde forms in these regions of Europe, a subject that is still under-researched.

Programme

Thursday 27 November 2014

9.00–9.30 Reception, coffee

9.30–9.45

Introduction: Lidia Głuchowska / Vojtěch Lahoda

Section 1

Moderator: Steven Mansbach 9.45–10.15

Nina Gourianova, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA

War as Medium: The Great War in the Russian Avant-Garde 10.15–10.45

Benedikt Hjartarson, University of Iceland, Rijekjavík, Iceland

Abstract Constructivism: Universal Language – National Idioms 10.45–11.00 Coffee break

Section 2

Moderator: Steven Mansbach 11.00–11.30

Erwin Kessler, Institute of Philosophy, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania

The Use, Abuse and Misuse of Cubism in the Romanian Avant-Garde 11.30–12.00

Bela Tsipuria, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

Georgian Modernists Rethinking Nationalism: The Impact of WWI and the Russian Revolutions 12.00–12.30

Irina Genova, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria

Modernism and the National Idea – Reflections of WWI: The Case of Bulgaria in the Context of South-Eastern Europe

12.30–14.00 Lunch break

Section 3

Moderator: Lidia Głuchowska 14.00–14.30

Harri Veivo, University of New Sorbonne, Paris, France / University of Helsinki, Finland

Centred and Decentred Cosmopolitanisms in Finland in the 1920s and Early 1930s 14.30–15.00

Heie Treier, Tallinn University, Estonia

Cubism and the Start of Avant-Garde in Estonia 15.00–15.30

Ginta Gerharde-Upeniece, Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia

Art and the New Latvian State (1918–1920): Modernism as a Cosmopolitan Idea and a Substantive National Factor

15.30–15.45 Coffee break

Section 4

Moderator: Charlotte Bydler 15.45–16.15

Annika Gunnarsson, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

‘Cosmonational’ – Neither National Nor Cosmopolitan – But a Tinge of Avant-Garde Modernism 16.15–16.45

Torben Jelsbak, Roskilde University, Denmark

Nationalist and Internationalist Discourses Surrounding the Modernist Breakthrough in Danish Art and Culture during WWI

Friday 28 November 2014

9.00–9.15 Coffee

Section 5

Moderator: Benedikt Hjartarson 9.15–9.45

Éva Forgács, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, USA / IWM, Vienna

The Concept of ‘National Art’ and World War I in Hungary: Lajos Fülep and the Dynamics of ‘National’ and ‘International’ 9.45–10.15

Lidia Głuchowska, Poland

The Great World and the ‘New Art’ in Poland: Between the Patriotic Ethos, the Nationalisation of Modernism and International Attempts in Aesthetics 10.15–10.45

Michal Wenderski, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland

‘Uncanonical’ Impulses to the ‘Canon’: Polish and Belgian Contribution to International Constructivism

10.45–11.00 Coffee break

Section 6

Moderator: Vojtěch Lahoda 11.00–11.30

Joana Cunha Leal, Art History Institute, New University of Lisbon, Portugal

‘A bridge too far?’: The War Effect in the Portuguese and Spanish Avant-Gardes 11.30–12.00

Emilio Quintana, Instituto Cervantes, Stockholm, Sweden

Languages of the Avant-Garde between Poland and Spain: Tadeusz Peiper and Spanish Modernism after WWI

12.00–14.00 Lunch break

Section 7

Moderator: Éva Forgács 14.00–14.30

Ljiljana Kolešnik, Institute of Art History, Zagreb, Croatia

Migrating Signifiers – Socialist Croatian Post-WWII Art History and Its Relation to the Inter-War Avant-Garde 14.30–15.00

Lenka Bydžovská, Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague

The Trojan Horse in the Trade Fair Palace: The Slav Epic versus the Czech Avant-Garde 15.00–15.30

Vendula Hnídková, Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague Respect and Triumph: The Intentions and Meanings of Czech Architecture before and after WWI

15.30–15.45 Coffee break

Section 8

Moderator: Tomáš Winter 15.45–16.15

Naomi Hume, Seattle University, USA Cut-and-Paste in Exile and War: Otto Gutfreund’s Parisian Collages 16.15–16.45

Vojtěch Lahoda, Czech Republic Transnational or National Cubism? Vincenc Kramář on Cubism 16.45–17.15

Closing Remarks: Steven Mansbach

Organizers: Professor Vojtěch Lahoda, Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague Dr. Lidia Głuchowska, Institute of Visual Arts, University of Zielona Góra, Poland / Humanities Faculty, University of Bamberg, Germany

Scientific Committee: Charlotte Bydler, PhD., School of Culture and Education and the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden PhDr. Lenka Bydžovská, CSc., Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague Dr. Lidia Głuchowska, Institute of Visual Art, University of Zielona Góra, Poland / Humanities Faculty, University of Bamberg, Germany Professor Vojtěch Lahoda, Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague Professor Steven Mansbach, University of Maryland, College Park, USA PhDr. Tomáš Winter, PhD., Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague

Contact: Vojtěch Lahoda: lahoda@udu.cas.cz Lidia Głuchowska: ligl@wp.pl

Address:

Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

Husova 4, 110 00 Prague 1

Contact: Blanka Švédová: svedova@udu.cas.cz, +420 221183501

There is no conference registration fee.