{"id":2908,"date":"2011-07-26T16:57:27","date_gmt":"2011-07-26T22:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2908"},"modified":"2011-07-26T17:10:39","modified_gmt":"2011-07-26T23:10:39","slug":"abstract-expressionism-cool-jazz-and-the-cia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2908","title":{"rendered":"Abstract Expressionism, Cool Jazz, and the CIA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"No.<\/a>

No. 5, 1948, by Jackson Pollock (Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n

This is not a new topic, but many people still do not realize how much the Central Intelligence Agency, through various fronts (cooperative or fake foundations, for example), influenced the artistic movements during the peak of the Cold War years<\/a>\u2014the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n

For example, Abstract Expressionist<\/a> painters like Jackson Pollock got huge boosts\u00a0 through important exhibitions and other patronage.<\/a><\/p>\n

Why? The Soviet Union, like Nazi Germany before it, officially disapproved of non-representational art. In that government’s view, non-representational art was morally degenerate\u2014in other words, insufficiently propagandistic.<\/p>\n

But we <\/em>in the freedom-loving United States championed Abstract Expressionism and made it almost official in our towers of government and commerce, to the point where even people who did not like the style knew that it was High Art and above criticism.<\/p>\n

Likewise jazz. There was no point in competing with the Soviet Union in the realm of classical music\u2014their system identified talented musicians and ballet dancers young and trained them rigorously. They sent the best of the best on international tours, and the only problem was that sometimes the talent ran away (see, e.g., Mikhail Baryshnikov). <\/a><\/p>\n

Soviet dissidents listened to jazz, so it was programmed on the Voice of America. And sending top American jazz musicians on world tours <\/a>showed that we valued free artistic expression, etc. etc. and also, incidentally, that not all American Negroes were oppressed, an accusation frequently made by Soviet critics. We did also play up composers whom the Soviets did not like, such as Shostakovich.<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s not exactly The Da Vinci Code<\/em>, but sometimes there are indeed conspiracies behind world events.<\/p>\n

It has always seemed to me that modern jazz began to lose its coolness cachet in the 1980s, and I cannot but think that such a loss was connected to the “winning” of the Cold War and the loss of secret funding. Abstract Expressionism has faded too, although whether the loss of secret support matters as much as the faddishness of the art world, I cannot say.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is not a new topic, but many people still do not realize how much the Central Intelligence Agency, through various fronts (cooperative or fake foundations, for example), influenced the artistic movements during the peak of the Cold War years\u2014the 1950s and 1960s. For example, Abstract Expressionist painters like Jackson Pollock got huge boosts\u00a0 through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,34],"class_list":["post-2908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art","tag-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-KU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2001,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2001","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":0},"title":"How the CIA Turned Abstract Art into Official High Culture","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"How did Abstract Expressionism come to dominate the mid-20th-century art scene? Partly because the Central Intelligence Agency paid for it\u2014all part of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Abstract or non-representational art was also being produced in the early years of the USSR, during the early 1920s. Then Joseph\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"culture\"","block_context":{"text":"culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=culture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1214,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1214","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":1},"title":"Did a ‘Pagan’ Bury the Staffordshire Hoard?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"Staffordshire Hoard\" is a cache of 7th-century Anglo-Saxon sword jewels and other items recently found in England (and a great boost for metal-detector sales, no doubt).The caption on one slide of the golden hoard suggests that because a gold cross was folded in on itself before burial, the person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11887,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11887","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":2},"title":"Why Is the Hippo Goddess Holding a Bull by a Chain in the Northern Sky?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This carving comes from a Greco-Roman-era Egyptian temple in Esna,where decorated walls are being carefully cleaned and original colors seen again. As workers in Egypt remove soot and dirt from the temple, sometimes with a mixture of alcohol and distilled water, the original painted carvings and hieroglyphics beneath are so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":34,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=34","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":3},"title":"Solstice at the Stones","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 30, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Archaeology magazine got around to noting the contemporary Pagan use of Stonehenge and Avebury circles. The link will give you an abstract of the article; the full version is print-only.","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":628,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=628","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":4},"title":"Painter of yuckUniversity Diaries goes\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Painter of yuckUniversity Diaries goes after kitschmeister Thomas Kinkade. It's a \"theological conundrum.\" At least, says the Los Angeles Times, he parties like an Abstract Expressionist. (Link may expire.)In sworn testimony and interviews, [ex-employees and others] recount incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried & Roy in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":338,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=338","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":5},"title":"\"The gods return to Olympus\"\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The gods return to Olympus\" Thus the title of an article in the January\/February 2005 issue of Archaeology magazine on Greeks re-creating their ancient religion. An abstract is available here, but to my mind it leaves out a key quote, from reconstructionist leader Tryphon Olympios, who left the country for\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2908"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2934,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908\/revisions\/2934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}