Art in Hungary, 1956–1980: Doublespeak and Beyond

The international significance of the art produced in Hungary in the 1960s and 1970s has come to the fore in recent years. Nevertheless, studies of modern and contemporary art in Eastern Europe during the Soviet era tend to focus on their relationship to Western art, with an emphasis on the parallel development of similar artistic practices – an approach that risks overlooking the specific circumstances of the art’s making. In Hungary’s case, artists of the neo-avant-garde found themselves in an increasingly isolated position, caught between the ruling communist authorities, who condemned their art as a product of capitalist cultural imperialism, and a predominantly conservative public, which rejected it as a foreign creation alien to the spirit of national culture.

Edit Sasvári is Director of the Kassák Museum, Budapest.

Sándor Hornyik is an art historian, a curator and a senior research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.

Hedvig Turai is an art historian and critic, currently working for the International Business School, Budapest.