Contacts: Social Dynamics in the Czechoslovak State-Socialist Art World

Abstract

This article analyses the strategic manipulation and use of contacts by artists and art historians in state-socialist Czechoslovakia, and focuses on the role of friendship, political favours, professional nepotism and bribery in this process. It criticises Howard Becker's belief that totalitarian regimes cannot partake in discourses of patronage common to Western democracies because of the lack of freedom of individuals. Instead, it argues that the conventional concept of patronage can only partly explain the motives behind the use of contacts by individuals, because its focus is limited to exploring vertical relationships between ‘powerless’ and ‘powerful’ social actors. The analysis therefore takes a wider and more dynamic view, and looks at the interplay of vertical and horizontal processes.