Entangled Art Histories: The United States and the Two Germanies 1960-1990

The artistic, cultural, and institutional exchanges between West and East Germany and the United States during the Cold War.

Throughout the Cold War era, a sustained and intense dialogue developed between both the West and East German and the North American art scenes on artistic, socio-cultural, institutional and economic levels. Entangled Art Histories offers new insights into the complex and intertwined transatlantic networks that gradually emerged in the wake of movements such as Fluxus, Pop Art, Minimalism and Conceptualism, involving artists, museums, galleries, curators, critics, and the art market.

The essays in this volume, written by internationally renowned scholars, address key issues ranging from travel and infrastructure to East-West cultural policy during the Cold War. By exploring the exhibition strategies, controversial receptions and geopolitical concerns of these entangled histories, this book contributes to a better understanding of the dynamic interplay between artists, galleries, and museums from a transnational perspective.

Contributing authors: Valérie Mavridorakis (Sorbonne Université), Gregor Stemmrich (New York University Abu Dhabi), Felix Vogel (University of Kassel), Alexander Alberro (Columbia University, New York City), Alexander Streitberger (UCLouvain), Nóra Lukács (Humboldt-Universität Berlin), Gregory H. Williams (Boston University), Erik Verhagen (Université de Lille), Stefaan Vervoort (Ghent University), Althea Ruoppo (Boston University), Claudia Mesch (Arizona State University), Sabeth Buchmann (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Stefano Agresti (La Sapienza University of Rome), Dirk Snauwaert (Wiels, Brussels).

Valérie Mavridorakis is professor of art history at Sorbonne Université, Paris.

Alexander Streitberger is professor of art history at UCLouvain.

Hilde Van Gelder is professor of art history at KU Leuven. Erik Verhagen is professor of art history at Université de Lille.