15 replies to this topic

[rwac]

For decades in art circles it was either a rumour or a joke, but now it is confirmed as a fact. The Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art - including the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko - as a weapon in the Cold War. In the manner of a Renaissance prince - except that it acted secretly - the CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the world for more than 20 years.
The connection is improbable. This was a period, in the 1950s and 1960s, when the great majority of Americans disliked or even despised modern art - President Truman summed up the popular view when he said: "If that's art, then I'm a Hottentot." As for the artists themselves, many were ex- communists barely acceptable in the America of the McCarthyite era, and certainly not the sort of people normally likely to receive US government backing.
Why did the CIA support them? Because in the propaganda war with the Soviet Union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the US. Russian art, strapped into the communist ideological straitjacket, could not compete.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html

Perhaps there's something to conspiracy theories after all. hmm.

[Mind]

Now I know why I never liked "modern" art. Lol.

[lemonhead]

Sounds like a way to make and transfer money, too.

[YOLF]

Interesting things we learn from history.

[david ellis]

Great post RWAC. It is very satisfying to hear a story that didn't blowback on the CIA.

[rwac]

Great post RWAC. It is very satisfying to hear a story that didn't blowback on the CIA.

One could argue that it blew back on the US itself.

[david ellis]

Great post RWAC. It is very satisfying to hear a story that didn't blowback on the CIA.

One could argue that it blew back on the US itself.

I can't argue with that.

[HoldingTheFaith]

If that is a "conspiracy theory" then I´m a Hottentot.

[PuertoO]

What's a Hottentot? Is it edible?

[Ben]

Great post RWAC. It is very satisfying to hear a story that didn't blowback on the CIA.

One could argue that it blew back on the US itself.

Exactly. If this is a weapon then who is being attacked by it?

The truth is more complicated. It is a weapon but one created by leftists to discredit traditional art and to promote the ugly over the beautiful.

[BlueCloud]

The truth is more complicated. It is a weapon but one created by leftists to discredit traditional art and to promote the ugly over the beautiful.

[sk_scientific]

I'll just leave this here.

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[YOLF]

I'll just leave this here.

What is it?

[sk_scientific]

Rump roast.

[Ben]

 

The truth is more complicated. It is a weapon but one created by leftists to discredit traditional art and to promote the ugly over the beautiful.

 

 

I know, I know, it's difficult to challenge modern doctrine and to go against, current (last 50 years) mainstream thought. I can understand it's frightening and that you're more comfortable with what your baby boomer leftist school and university teachers drilled into you.
 

[kurdishfella]

Everything has been weaponized.

Also people say CIA made up  the term conspiracy. Well yes they needed a word to describe something or someone it doesn't mean anything.

Edited by kurdishfella, 20 November 2022 - 03:09 PM.