
Conference "Art History and Socialism(s) after World War II: The 1940s until the 1960s". Photo: Kristina Jõekalda
The main objective of the research project Historicizing Art: Knowledge Production in Art History in Estonia amidst Changing Ideologies and Disciplinary Developments is to examine the processes in art historiography and knowledge production (writing of art histories, exhibition practice etc.) in Estonia from the 19th to the 21st century in an international comparison. Throughout times same works of art and architecture, as well as entire narratives of local artistic development, have been presented in various ways and assembled into surprisingly differing histories. These, in turn, have formed the basis for understanding and perceiving historical art in the society at large. The project aims to explore how these juxtaposing art histories relate to and differ from one another, and how politics, ideologies, the international discourse of art history and local historiographical tradition have affected these different interpretations. Thus the project sets one of its tasks also to study the historical cultural situations and transnational cultural exchange that have brought these particular perceptions of heritage about.
Principal investigator: Krista Kodres
Senior research staff: Virve Sarapik
Other research staff: Kristina Jõekalda, Kädi Talvoja, Eero Kangor, Maria Jäärats (PhD students)
Duration: 2015–2018
Project type: Personal Research Funding grant PUT788
See in the Estonian Research Information System
The research group organized the conference Art History and Socialism(s) after World War II: The 1940s until the 1960s (27th–29th Oct. 2016, Tallinn). Follow-up conferences in the same series are held in 2017 in Leipzig and in 2020 in Berlin.
The research group initiated a seminar series (Kunsti)ajalooloome. Ümberkirjutamise küsimusi, comprising three meetings: prof. Marek Tamm (January 2016), prof. Tiina-Ann Kirss (March 2017) and Dr. Epp Annus (May 2018).
The work of the research group culminates with the edited collection A Socialist Realist History? Writing Art History in the Post-War Decades. Eds. Krista Kodres, Kristina Jõekalda, Michaela Marek. (Das östliche Europa. Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte 9.) Köln, Weimar, Wien: Böhlau, 2019.