Architecture and ideology in Eastern Europe during the Stalin era : an aspect of Cold War history /

The end of High Modernist dominance created a space in art history for the study of the counter-Modernist movements of the middle decades of the 20th century. The art and architecture of fascist Italy and Germany, as well as Soviet Socialist Realism, have received considerable scholarly attention even in English. The monumental arts in Eastern Europe during the Cold War have, however, gone largely unchartered. oAman's book does not exactly fill this gap, but it helps clarify the dimensions of the lacuna. The author provides an introduction to the building and the public monuments of East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria during and after Stalinism. In addition to the formal or stylistic character of these works, episodes from contemporary academic, public, and governmental debates are usefully discussed. oAman supplies the reader with a basic ideological and historical frame for understanding the use of art by the state, although some of his diagrammatic formulations oversimplify the complexity of the works he presents and the political circumstances of their production. Undergraduate; advanced undergraduate; faculty; general. A. J. Wharton; Duke University

Western critics usually dismiss the architecture of the Stalin-era Soviet bloc, executed in the style known as socialist realism, as aesthetic totalitarianism or as embarrassing anachronisms. Aman, an art professor in Sweden, argues rather that socialist realist architects of East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria drew on their respective national traditions to create hybrid forms that often differed markedly from Soviet architecture. Decked out with 253 illustrations, this illuminating study focuses on such projects as Bucharest's enormous, Byzantine-arched Casa Scinteii and Warsaw's Palace of Culture, which many Poles despise as a symbol of Soviet domination. Aman profiles architects who strove for originality despite government restrictions. He draws interesting parallels between Soviet-bloc architecture and socialist realist paintings, which adhered to a hierarchy of subjects and themes. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved