The Vancouver Art Gallery has a good exhibition on right now about art made under the highly censored, highly surveillance-oriented era of the Eastern Bloc between the 60s and 80s
If you're near the area you should go, but if you're not I noted down a couple of the topics/exhibits you can look up
If you're near the area you should go, but if you're not I noted down a couple of the topics/exhibits you can look up
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Because artists were operating under both communication and travel restrictions, groups of artists around the globe starting sharing art via mail-- sometimes it was Fluxus-like art, sometimes they sent each other passport pages to try and escape. Search the name "Ray Johnson"
Traditional art forms like painting and sculpture were heavily monitored and censored in the Eastern Bloc, but textiles often flew under the radar, making it a place where artistic freedom could flourish. Look up "Janina Tworek-Pierzgalska"
During a particularly heavy period of artistic scrutiny, some artists opted to not make physical works but instead do short performances in physical spaces. Sometimes it was just for friends, but sometimes it was in public. There was a lot of emphasis on inflicting pain or intense--
This one's equal parts funny and massively ballsy. Please look it up, lol
This one's interesting because it began in 1982 and is still being worked on to this day