Caricature as the Avant-Garde in Eastern Europe.

Panel at the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies' annual virtual convention 2026, organized by Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius.

Anti-canonical and belligerent, addressing both art and politics, caricature has proved its avant-garde credentials since its early modern origins by launching critiques of the mechanisms of representation, the rules of decorum, social norms, and political strategies. In the hands of Picasso, Duchamp, who debuted as a cartoonist, of George Grosz and John Heartfield, of Russian and Ukrainian Futurists, as well as the Devětsil theorist Karel Teige, caricature rose to a master key to the radical conceptualisations of the very matrix of art, offering also clues to visualising political critique. While existing research on its affinities with modern art has centred on France, Germany and the US, this panel aims to advance discussion of its kinship with the historical avant-garde in Eastern Europe, from Zaum, Dada and Poetism to other ‘isms’ emerging in the region.

This is a second conference panel devoted to caricature's affinities with the avant-garde, following "Caricature as the Avant-Garde East of Berlin", at the ICCSSE Congress in London in 2025. It retains its emphasis on the historical avant-garde, but it also invites papers that investigate the proximity of caricature strategies to numerous avant-garde and Neo Avant-garde movements of the second half of the twentieth century and the new millennium. Pop art, mixed media, and performance art have adopted the cartoonish deformation, the visual rhetoric of comics, dark humour, and absurd juxtapositions to address the discrimination, violence, and trauma of the contemporary world. An inquiry into the presumed masculinity of caricature as an avant-garde art form is also welcomed.

All panellists must be members of ASEEES and of SHERA (we are applying for the affiliation with SHERA). Membership in ASEEES starts at $65 per year and includes digital access to Slavic Review, as well as numerous discounts and grant opportunities. Membership of SHERA is currently $30 per annum, offering access to a lively programme of lectures, grants and events.

Please send an abstract of up to 250 words and a short CV by 19.02.2026 to k.murawska-muthesiusbbk.ac.uk.