How was cultural identity constructed outside America in the 1950s? What was America’s cultural and artistic impact—its politics, policies and modern art—on Europe, Eastern Europe and Russia? Moving beyond a characterization of the relationship simply as one of American hegemony or propaganda, this panel will examine the complex and unexpected ways these cultures informed each other—artistically and culturally—during the cold war.
Participants include Yevgeniy Fiks, artist and author of n the Shadow of Yalta: Art and the Avant-garde in Eastern Europe (2009); Piotr Piotrowski, Art Historian, author of In the Shadow of Yalta: Art and the Avant-garde in Eastern Europe 1945–1989 (2011), and Julia Sneeringer, Historian, author of the work in progress, From Burlesque to Beatles: Hamburg and the Remaking of West German Popular Culture, 1949–1969.
This event was held in conjuction with the James Gallery exhibition “The Making of Americans.” For more information, click here.