Art Belongs to the People? Transformations of the Popular Understanding of Art in Estonia during the late 1940s
Art Belongs to the People? Transformations of the Popular Understanding of Art in Estonia during the late 1940s

Summary/Abstract: The article looks at the changes in the popular understanding of art during the Stalinist period in Estonia, when the official model for producing and assessing culture was strictly defined by the socialist realist method and the corresponding ideological rhetoric. The commentaries in the visitor books of the three exhibitions in the Tallinn Art Hall in 1948–1949 indicate several cultural and social transformations taking place in a recently occupied territory: the strict ideological control over art production, mechanisms of disseminating Soviet ideology through education and culture, the influx of Russian-speakers into Estonia and their participation in viewing practices etc.

• Details
• Contents