Cold War Art Worlds: South Asian Art and Artists in Prague, 1947-1989 - Softcover

Wille, Simone

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9462704708 ISBN 13: 9789462704701

Publisher: Leuven University Press, 2025

Synopsis

Prague as a vital Cold War hub for South Asian artists.

During the Cold War, the Central-European capital city Prague, along with other previously less noticed locations in the polarised post-war world, emerged as a key site where an art world of particular importance for artists from South Asia developed. By emphasising cultural mobility as a catalyst for exchange and network building, this book challenges and complicates assumptions about Cold War binaries of East and West and the polarisation between so-called totalitarian regimes and free cultures. Positioning Prague as a nexus where South-Asian modernisms intersected with multiple peoples, histories, and ideologies in the post-World War II era, it offers a narrative of decolonisation that rejected rigid systemic alignment in favour of participation across blocs by prioritising migratory aesthetics over nationalist parochialism. Well-researched and rich in archival materials, this book proposes new ways of writing art histories and makes a significant contribution to both Cold War studies and critical global modernism studies.

About this title

About the Author

Simone Wille, Institute of Art History, University of Innsbruck.

From the Back Cover

During the Cold War, the Central-European capital city Prague, along with other previously less noticed locations in the polarised post-war world, emerged as a key site where an art world of particular importance for artists from South Asia developed. By emphasising cultural mobility as a catalyst for exchange and network building, this book challenges and complicates assumptions about Cold War binaries of East and West and the polarisation between so-called totalitarian regimes and free cultures. Positioning Prague as a nexus where South-Asian modernisms intersected with multiple peoples, histories, and ideologies in the post-World War II era, it offers a narrative of decolonisation that rejected rigid systemic alignment in favour of participation across blocs by prioritising migratory aesthetics over nationalist parochialism. Well-researched and rich in archival materials, this book proposes new ways of writing art histories and makes a significant contribution to both Cold War studies and critical global modernism studies.

Simone Wille, Institute of Art History, University of Innsbruck.

Edition details

• Publisher: Leuven University Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9462704708
• ISBN 13: 9789462704701
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320