The Hungarian art historian Edit András's The Cultural Disguise provides an analysis of Hungarian visual arts between 1989 and 2022 and offers a courageous insight into the period of transformation after the fall of the communist regime and the phenomena associated with authoritarian and nationalist tendencies.
Edit András used the occasion to give a public lecture introducing listeners to the development of the Hungarian cultural scene over the last two decades, the concept of the book, and the development of Central European art in the 21st century.
Publication Cultural Dressing. Art on the ruins of socialism and on the peaks of nationalism brought to you by selected parts of two consecutive books by Edit András: Cultural Cross-dressing. Art on the ruins of socialism (2009, in Hungarian) and The Limits of Imagination. Contemporary Art and Critical Theory in Eastern Europe (2023, in Hungarian). The first part of the publication deals with the Hungarian art scene, its trends and creators during the period of transition (1989-2010). The second part focuses on phenomena falling within the period from 2010 (the victory of the Fidesz party) to the present, with the author's main focus on authoritarian and nationalist tendencies. Edit András introduces the work of Hungarian artists and the local artistic environment using the methods of critical art history writing. In particular, she follows socially engaged, socially sensitive and critical works. She is interested in the changing social position of art and the ways in which it adapts to or resists the current situation. She looks at how post-socialist culture deals with its own past, the gendered aspects of Hungarian art, the relationship between culture and power, and how easily cultural and historical issues can be exploited politically.
Edit András (*1953) is a Hungarian art historian and critic, a researcher at the Institute of Art History, Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, and visiting professor at the History Department of the Central European University in Vienna. She specialises in Eastern and Central European modern and contemporary art, art theory, and focuses on gender issues and social and political engagement, nationalism and post-socialist transformation.
