A nyolcvanas években a kelet-európai országokban alkotó fiatal művészek jelentős részét a megkövesedett hagyományok elutasításán túl a totalitárius rendszerrel való szembefordulás vágya is fűtötte. A nem hivatalos művészet ezekben az államokban többnyire csupán a nyilvánosságtól elzárt szigetszerű jelenségként, különböző vagy egymáshoz nagyon is hasonló csoportok tevékenységeként működött.

The majority of young artists working in Eastern Europe in the 1980s was – apart from the rejection of canonized conventions – also inspired by a desire to confront the totalitarian system. In most cases, unofficial art in these states only existed as an isolated phenomenon that was denied publicity, as an activity of groups either different from or, more often, similar to one another. Such was the situation especially in Romania, where at the time of dictatorship the young generation that opposed the officially approved art could mostly work underground. Yet, despite their isolated state and the detrimental geopolitical divisions, at the beginning of the decade here, too, a novel, postmodern sensitiveness reared its head with respect to both content and style, peculiarly merging with other late (post)avant-garde type of artistic phenomena.