Eastern Europe. Out of Eastern Europe: Private Photography.

Catalog for January 17-April 12, 1987 exhibition at MIT. Essays by John J. Jacobs and Lynn Zelevansky. Stapled wraps, glossy illustrated cover, 56 pages, profusely illustrated. Gritty photographs taken under Communist rule in East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary by Janusz Bakowski; Karel Bartonicek; Anna Bohdziewicz; Jerzy Caryk; Lucjan Demidowski; Th. Florschuetz; Frankl Aljona; Hajas Tibor; Halas Istvan; Hegedus 2. Laszlo; Ivan Kafka; Karolyl Zeigmond; Milan Knizak; Libor Krejcar; Leupold/Leupold; Miklos Novottny; Andresa Prustel; Jezef Robakowski; Tomas Ruller; Zofia Rydet; Schmal Karoly; Gundula Schulze; Rudolf Sikora; Szilagy Lenke; Varnagy Tibor; Zatonyl Tibor; Antoni Zdebiak; and Peter Zubnik, et al. Summary:

Out of Eastern Europe: Private Photography (1987) is an exhibition catalog published by the MIT Committee on Visual Arts (now the MIT List Visual Arts Center) to accompany a groundbreaking survey of late–Cold War underground photography.

Key Overview

• Curators & Authors: Guest curated by John P. Jacob, featuring essays by Jacob and photography critic Lynn Zelevansky.

• Scope: Features work by 30 contemporary artists operating within Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, and Poland.

• Core Theme: Focuses on non-official, "private" photography produced outside state-sanctioned artistic channels. The volume explores how artists used the medium for personal expression, political nuance, experimental aesthetics, and subversion in countries where visual culture was tightly monitored by state authorities.

• Format & Details: 56-page catalog containing 53 black-and-white illustrations alongside historical and critical essays analyzing the social and political conditions surrounding underground art production in Soviet-bloc nations.

Copies available:

• Very good with some small irregularities in the printing on plain red back cover, otherwise near fine. 
• Near fine with light crimps on cover.