Modern art was a CIA "weapon"

[Douglas Caddy]

Modern art was CIA 'weapon'
Revealed: how the spy agency used unwitting artists such as Pollock and de Kooning in a cultural Cold War
By Frances Stonor Saunders
Saturday 21 October 1995
The Independent

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

[Len Colby]

Saturday 21 October 1995

How timely

[John Dolva]

snippets from an article : http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-28/stroke-of-genius-the-legacy-of-blue-poles/4228672

At the time Blue Poles was acquired for the Australian National Gallery (now the NGA) the gallery did not even have a building.

Then director James Mollison was determined to build a collection worthy of a national institution.

The gallery did not have the authority to sign off on purchases of over $1 million, so the purchase was referred to the Federal Government, and approved by then prime minister Gough Whitlam.

Going against political advice, he decided that the price paid for the artwork should be made public.

And so, a political ruckus was ignited.

'$1.3m for dribs and drabs,' raged one newspaper headline.

'Barefoot drunks painted our $1 million masterpiece', read another.

Patrick McCaughey recalled giving multiple public lectures in packed theatres about Blue Poles after it was purchased.

"The public wanted to like the painting," he said.

"But they needed to be assured the painting was not an American con job."

Indeed, the painting marks an interesting juncture in the history of US-Australian relations, according to Sean Gallagher from the USSC.

"It shows the ties between the two countries go deeper than the alliance," he said, "extending to the arts and culture."

While artists in New York were embracing abstract expressionism as a way to internationalise their work, Australian artists were looking to the movement to achieve their own unique style.

Abstract expressionism championed the expression of the subconscious,

In the 1990 film Storming the Citadel, American artist Robert Motherwell says, "in the history of all art there was never a moment as hated as abstract expressionism".

If there was fear among the Australian public that Blue Poles might be an American con job, its purchase by the new Labor regime under Gough Whitlam probably compounded that distress.

Australian art historian and curator Anthony White told the NGA symposium that even after nearly 40 years, the piece still asks more questions than it answers.

"You have a long time to think about it and yet you're never quite done with it," he said.

[Len Colby]

On a related note

How Lou Reed Helped Bring Down Communism in Eastern Europe

By Rob Wile

Just how influential was Lou Reed, who died today at age 71? Former Czech President and onetime dissident playwright Václav Havel was once said to have asked him, "Did you know I am president because of you?"

[...]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/10/27/how_lou_reed_helped_bring_down_communism_in_eastern_europe.html?wpsrc=sh_all_mob_tw_top