Negotiating the East-West Divide: Art from Eastern Europe at the Venice Biennale 1948-1950 


In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the Venice Biennale provided a distinctive platform for exhibiting art from Eastern and Western European countries. While not all countries of the so-called Eastern Block participated in the Biennale’s early postwar editions, their decisions to engage or withdraw from this significant international art event of the time were indicative of the broader political transformations underway in Europe. This lecture examines the exhibition strategies of Eastern European countries at the 1948 and 1950 Venice Biennales. By analyzing these strategies, the significant role of exhibitions in challenging and re-evaluating the established historical canons of modern art and its Western-centric perspectives will be discussed. Particular attention will be paid to the complex relationship between the newly founded Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia and the Venice Biennale. This case study will illuminate how Yugoslavia navigated a position beyond the East-West dichotomy, a framework often employed in post-war art historical discourse.



Dr. Ana Ereš is an art historian specializing in exhibition history, the history of the Yugoslav art space, and transnational modernism. She is a senior research fellow at the Department of Art History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, where she earned her PhD. For her book Yugoslavia at the Venice Biennale: Cultural Policies and Politics of Exhibition 1938-1990 she was awarded the Pavle Vasić Award. 



This lecture is organized by Maria Bremer as part of the course “Modern Art – Global Perspectives” (Kunstgeschichte 3)