Peter Tuka
Published: 21 January 2019
20th century East-Central European art within the socio-political background of totalitarian regimes and with particular interest in the culture and history of former Czechoslovakia.
University of Glasgow
20th century East-Central European art within the socio-political background of totalitarian regimes and with particular interest in the culture and history of former Czechoslovakia.
I am mainly concerned with the ways different forms of totalitarian sovereignty operate directly on people’s lives, and how in such conditions art often becomes a means of spiritual transformation and a form of personal non-violent resistance against oppression and exploitation.In my doctoral research, I will undertake a detailed study of Slovakian neo-avant-garde artist Július Koller (1939-2007).
Over the past decade, Koller has emerged as the foremost conceptualist of the East-Central European region and further reassessment of his significance is much needed. This research will present new findings about his work and draw conclusions about the fraught place of conceptual and avant-garde art in the former Soviet bloc. My focus will be on the important archival holdings of Koller’s extensive research notes, on which work to date has been only very fragmentary.
This research will examine the driving forces behind Koller’s thinking and practice in the broader context, and will contribute new insights to the scholarly reassessment of the East-Central European avant-gardes that is being developed internationally.
First published: 21 January 2019