This is Call for Papers for a Doctoral Conference, to be held on 25 November 2026, at the Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, organised in cooperation with the Academic Research Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and Palacký University, Olomouc.

The Cold War was an overriding force that profoundly shaped the conditions under which artists, curators, and cultural institutions could establish and maintain international contacts. While the global landscape was complex, the metaphor of the Iron Curtain embedded itself deeply in the popular imagination and carried tangible consequences for both mobility and communication. Yet, as demonstrated by recent scholarship (e.g., Curley 2019; Franke et al. 2021; Wille 2025), framing the overall situation in strictly bipolar terms is overly reductive; although elaborate webs of connection were limited and certain artistic practices were either, informal diplomacy, and acts of solidarity, they developed channels that blurred rigid distinctions such as East and West or oicial and unoicial, generating cultural spaces far more nuanced than dominant Cold War narratives imply. This one-day doctoral conference seeks to explore how transnational artistic relations unfolded in the visual arts between 1945 and 1989. Rather than focusing primarily on restrictions and bureaucratic barriers, the organisers encourage contributions that illuminate the situations in which artists, artworks, exhibitions, or curators did cross the geopolitical and ideological boundaries of the Cold War – sometimes officially, sometimes semi-legally, sometimes unexpectedly – and that examine how these encounters shaped artistic practices and institutional narratives. We invite papers that examine cases in which artists appeared in “forbidden”, politically sensitive, or ideologically distant spaces, and ask how such moments of contact influenced the content, form, and reception of their work. How did transnational encounters alter artistic languages, curatorial decisions, or exhibition-making practices? In what ways did artists, critics, curators, cultural diplomats, collectors, or informal intermediaries facilitate these crossings, and how were their actions translated into exhibitions, pedagogical initiatives, and other forms of collaboration? Ultimately, the conference aims to illuminate how the lived experience of crossing – or even imagining – the Cold War divide le its imprint not only on individual artworks but also on the art historical narratives that continue to shape our understanding of this period.

Given the broad range of potential topics, the conference is aimed primarily at PhD candidates and early-career researchers in art history, visual and cultural studies, history, and related disciplines.

Working language is English. Format: 20-minute on-site presentation, online contributions only in exceptional cases Please send an abstract of 250–300 words, a short bio (up to 150 words, including institutional affiliation), to mail addresses: jana.farskahajkova01@upol.cz and lujza.kotocova@avu.cz by 30 April 2026. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 June 2026.

Full CfP: https://www.udu.cas.cz/archiv/content_cz/cfp_artistic_relations_prague.pdf