A Theoretical Excursus on the Concept of Political Art in Communism and its Aftermath
A Theoretical Excursus on the Concept of Political Art in Communism and its Aftermath

Summary/Abstract: This paper confronts the conceptual meanings of “political art” in communist regimes and liberal democracies. The label “political art” is in general used to designate a wide variety of art productions, practices and art activities. What is political in art? The answer is all the more disputed that politics itself is a conflictive term. After the Second World War, opposition or support given to the expansion of the capitalist/corporatist culture were expressed via a multitude of ways of “making art politically”. In a liberal democracy, art is seen and used as a tool to confront the antagonisms of reality. On the contrary, in totalitarian regimes, “making art politically” means that art is seen and used both as a weapon to distort reality in order to legitimate power and as a way of expressing otherness (”underground”, ”dissident art” from totalitarian regimes).

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