From Managerial Capitalism to Culture War: Debates around the Restructuring of the System of Visual Arts in Post-Socialist Hungary

In late-socialist Hungary, the system for the production and distribution of visual arts underwent significant changes. While marketization increasingly took hold, art policy allowed more space for artists who followed Western trends. After the post-socialist transition of 1989, these processes accelerated, and the protagonists of the former avant-garde – holders of the most important symbolic capital – became the new elite of the artistic field. However, this process also led to intense conflicts and sharp institutional debates. These conflicts did not stop at the edges of the field of artistic production; rather, they became the subject of political battles between leading market-liberal and national-conservative protectionist factions. In this study, I will present the structure of the economic and administrative system of fine arts under state socialism, examine the history of the successor organizations to the Magyar Népköztársaság Művészeti Alapja [Art Fund of the Hungarian People’s Republic], and describe the debates between the Magyar Képzőművészek és Iparművészek Szövetsége [Union / Association of Fine and Applied Artists] and the Budapest Kunsthalle in post-socialist Hungary.