A wide-ranging examination of Socialist Realism that shows it extended far beyond Eastern Europe.

Was Socialist Realism Global? takes up a question that was posed by art historian Piotr Piotrowski in his final book. It offers new perspectives both on socialist realism in a strict sense and on aspects of politically and socially engaged art of the twentieth century that employed broadly understood figuration. Contributors to the volume shed light on the genealogy of figuration, relate socialist art and socialist realism from Europe to analogous artistic practices in Latin America and beyond, and more. To date, they argue, the rewriting of the artistic canon of the postcolonial world has failed to sufficiently underscore the fact that through the period of decolonization and Cold War divisions internationally, artists across half the globe were educated according to doctrines of real socialism.

Contributors: Jerome Bazin, Kate Cowcher, Tatiana Flores, Joanna Kordjak, Partha Mitter, Yevheniia Moliar, Magdalena Moskalewicz, Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius, Agata Pietrasik, Nadia Plungyan, Julia Secklehner, Zheng Shengtian, Mirela Tanta, Chuong-Dai Vo, Anthony Yung, and Carol Yinghua Lu