CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Kacsor, Adrienn |
|---|---|
| Title | Patronizing Contemporary Painting in State Socialist Hungary, 1957-1969 |
| Summary | This thesis investigates how the Hungarian socialist state financially supported the creation of contemporary painting in a system of evolving patronage institutions during the 1960s. Through the key institutions of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the Art Fund, and the Committee of State Acquisitions, replaced by the National Gallery in 1968, a broad range of artists received financial support from the state. Besides archival documents of the Ministry and the National Gallery, interviews conducted with artists as well as officials of the Art Fund, provide insight into the operation of the state's patronage system. The thesis demonstrates that along with art historians and cultural bureaucrats, artists were involved as members of the jury committees. In several cases, it was the jurors’ social connections that influenced the operation of the patronage system. The fact that the socialist state emerged as the main patron of arts thus did not mean that art became “directed” or “committed,” the thesis argues; a wide array of professional artists participated in the patronage system. In addition to the documentation of the state’s acquisitions, the paintings purchased during these years assisted me in reconstructing the history of the socialist state’s art patronage. Visual materials gathered in museum storage rooms and archives illustrate the narrative of this thesis: they show that as a result of the Kádárist cultural policy, by the second half of the sixties a variety of styles and topics received financing in state socialist Hungary. |
| Supervisor | Zimmermann, Susan |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/kacsor_adrienn.pdf |
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