Critical Approaches to Art, Race and Coloniality in Eastern EuropeEdition 1

Building on recent scholarship that challenges the supposed historical isolation of Eastern European art from the colonial matrix of power, this book responds to the sometimes uncritical application of established Western postcolonial and decolonial theories to the region’s visual production.

Instead, it advocates for more nuanced, historically grounded methodologies sensitive to Eastern Europe’s specific circumstances as a capitalist (semi)periphery and an area shaped by multiple competing empires. Moving beyond Cold War binaries, the essays collectively argue that the region’s volatile historical positionalities destabilize rigid theoretical divides between colonizer and colonized, challenge normative understandings of whiteness and indigeneity, and highlight the divergent political trajectories of postsocialism and postcolonialism in artistic practice. Conceptualized as a critical intervention, the volume amplifies voices from the (semi)periphery to make a significant methodological contribution to debates in the global history of art, foregrounding the variegated nature of colonialism itself.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, colonialism and postcolonialism studies, and Eastern European studies.