Traces of Reality: Abstract Art and the CIA (WIW 13)

Conspiracy Clearinghouse

EPISODE 107 | Traces of Reality: Abstract Art and the CIA (World Is Weird 13)

Guest: Mandy Theis, founder and director of the School of Atelier Arts, academic director and professor at the Florence Academy of Art

Maybe you've walked into a museum or gallery and seen a big white, blank canvas, or a huge circle, and thought, "So, this is art, eh?". But why is there so much of this abstract stuff around? The answer might be surprising - because the CIA promoted it as part of the Cold War.

And then it rather got away from them. Today, the art market is the most unregulated in the world, and aesthetics and skill take a back seat to branding.

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SECTIONS

1. 02:31 - Atelier training, the CIA begins, the cultural Cold War was run by elitists, Julia Child, Realism gets rebranded as Communist, the Springville Museum of Art in Utah, cadmium red as protest, dry brushing technique, techniques follow money, skill list art, technical skills are being lost
2. 12:30 - Social Realism, Czech Functionalism and German Bauhaus, Cubist architecture, art is always in motion, Russians tweaked French Realism, Abstract art eclipses realism, a war of aesthetics and marketing, the French discount the Americans, America pushes Abstract Expressionism, Marshall Plan money becomes a black bag, the Congress of Cultural Freedom, Clement Greenberg, Art criticism as marketing
3. 23:18 - the NCL (Non-Communist Left), Jackson Pollack was a CIA tool, American racial attitudes work against them
4. 28:24 - Abstract Expressionism promoted as ultimate American style because it has no inherent meaning, it's safe; Picasso had atelier training, Truman hated abstract art ("ham and egg men"), George Dondero goes nuts about abstract art on the House floor, Realism is not retrograde, we are losing the artistic skills to make beautiful things
5. 36:06 - the CIA's efforts were very successful, the modern art market is the most unregulated in the world, technique gets separated from art so it all becomes about money, everything is branded, Warhol critiques all this, fine art feels remote from most of us, the art world is a closed circuit, Thomas Kinkade was successful because at least his work meant something to some people, scribbles are scribbles but branding makes them art
6. 47:51 - Don't know if it's art, but I like it; Realism is still villainized

• Music by Fanette Ronjat

More Info:

• The School of Atelier Arts website
• Bodyguard of Lies: The Ghost Army & Wartime Deception (World Is Weird 11)
• The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stonor Saunders
• Springville Museum of Art - largest public collection of 20th century Russian and Soviet art in the western United States
• 15 things to know about Norman Rockwell
• Why Norman Rockwell Matters
• Ralph McQuarrie: Star Wars' Concept Artist
• A Visit to the CIA’s “Secret” Abstract Art Collection
• Was Modern Art Really a CIA Psy-Op?
• Class 8. The CIA and the Cultural Cold War
• Origins of the Congress of Cultural Freedom, 1949-50 Cultural Cold War on CIA.gov
• WHEN FREEDOM TOOK THE OFFENSIVE: The Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Power of Ideas
• Congress for Cultural Freedom on Spartacus Educational
• Cold Warrior: The Clement Greenberg Phenomenon
• CIA Weaponizing Abstract Art and Its Fallout
• The use of American art in the Cold War
• How MoMA and the CIA Conspired to Use Unwitting Artists to Promote American Propaganda During the Cold War
• Ford Foundation - Funding transatlantic exchange between the arts and politics
• The Ford Foundation and the CIA: A documented case of philanthropic collaboration
  with the Secret Police
• Modern art was CIA 'weapon'
• How the CIA Secretly Used Jackson Pollock & Other Abstract Expressionists to Fight the Cold War
• Was modern art a weapon of the CIA?
• Jackson Pollock & the CIA on The Conspiracy of Art website
• Why did the CIA sponsor Jackson Pollock?
• Pollock is Bollocks
• Pollock: genius or charlatan?
• Jackson Pollock: Separating Man from Myth
• Viewpoint: Why racism in US is worse than in Europe - BBC Viewpoint
• “They treated us royally”? Black Americans in Britain during WW2
• Why abstract art is not valid
• Abstract Art Is Not Art and Definitely Not Abstract
• The Tyranny of Abstract Art in The Atlantic
• Communist conspiracy in art threatens American museums, Congressional Record, March, 17, 1952
• Anticommunism and Modern Art - selection from the George Dondero Papers
• THE SUPPRESSION OF ART IN THE MCCARTHY DECADE
• The Shame of the Mural Censors — Why Art and History Matter
• Between Avant-Garde and Kitsch: Deconstructing Art And/As Ideology on Project MUSE
• Modern American Art and the Politics of Cultural Diplomacy
• Abstract Expressionism and the Cold War
• 'The art trade is the last major unregulated market'
• A Fascinating, Sexy, Intellectually Compelling, Unregulated Global Market. - Freakonomics ep. 484
• The Art Market: Unregulated Unscrupulous And Worth Billions
• High-end art is one of the most manipulated markets in the world
• THE ART MARKET: AFFLUENCE AND DEGRADATION on Art Forum
• Billion Dollar Painter: The Triumph and Tragedy of Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light book
• Thomas Kinkade: A Success - 60 Minutes
• Thomas Kinkade: The Painter Art Critics Hated but America Loved
• Much to the Chagrin of the Art Establishment, the Numbers Indicate that Thomas Kinkade Is the Most Successful and Relevant Artist in Human History
• Thomas Kinkade Was the World's Biggest Selling Painter. Art for Everybody Asks Why

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