ABSTRACT

This study examines the role played by regional cultures in modern art and visual culture in Central Europe between 1918 and 1938.

Analysing paintings, photographs, prints, and illustrated magazines in relation to topics such as tourism, social activism, rural exoticism, gender, and ethnic diversity, the book offers a fresh perspective on Central European art and visual culture. It pays particular attention to Austria, a country often ignored in histories of modernism in Central Europe, yet one where the countryside gained high visibility as a part of modern culture between the wars. Examples from Czechoslovakia and Hungary also play an important role in comparison and challenge the nationally fragmented histories of modernism in the region. The book’s approach overall is also relevant beyond Central Europe: it corrects assumptions that modern art and visual culture were at home in the urban space and emphasises the role of the countryside as an agent of renewal and emancipation in order to construct a more nuanced history of modernism.

The book will be of interest to scholars studying art history, Central European studies, European Studies, modernism, and cultural history.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

Title
Central European Modernism and the Countryside
Size: 0.53 MB

chapter 1|28 pages

Dreams of Autonomy

Title
Regionalism as Post-War Regeneration
Size: 2.09 MB

chapter 2|26 pages

Constructing the Countryside

Title
Regionalism's Rise to Soft Diplomacy
Size: 1.24 MB

chapter 3|26 pages

Paradise of Leisure

Title
The Modern Countryside in Tourism, Fashion, and Popular Culture
Size: 1.27 MB

chapter 4|26 pages

Rural Utopia

Title
Heimat Photography between Popular Nationalism and Modernist Experimentation
Size: 1.32 MB

chapter 5|26 pages

Socialist Dystopia?

Title
Leftist Visual Culture and Rural Margins as a Political Battleground
Size: 2.02 MB

chapter 6|24 pages

Rural Exotic

Title
The Countryside as a Place of Difference
Size: 1.41 MB

chapter |4 pages

Conclusion

Title
The Interwar Years as an Age of Provincial Rule 1
Size: 0.07 MB