GENDER CHECK: A READER : ART AND GENDER IN EASTERN EUROPE SINCE THE 1960S
BOJANA PEJIC
Following the collapse of the Berlin wall and the Soviet Bloc in 1989, gender studies and the theorization of feminism boomed in eastern Europe, from the Baltics to the Caucasus. Bojana Pejic's substantial companion volume to Gender Check (which compiled paintings, sculptures, photographs, posters, installations, films and videos by over 200 artists) offers a coherent picture of this previously unmapped terrain, analyzing the visual arts before and after 1989 in relation to the relative absence and then explosion of feminist debate. How were workers depicted on Socialist posters? How were male heroes"" portrayed in officially sanctioned art in Romania in the 1960s? How did female artists see themselves during the transition period after 1989? How do images impact our view of the sexes? Gender Check: A Reader reflects on ideas of masculinity and femininity in the former Communist Bloc.""