Oct 4, 2016 · Was modern art a weapon of the CIA? The Abstract Expressionists emerged from obscurity in the late 1940s to establish New York as the centre of the art world – but some say they became pawns of...

Apr 1, 2020 · When the CIA made its bid to the European intelligentsia, the Agency was waging what Braden called “the battle for Picasso’s mind,” via Jackson Pollock’s art.

Oct 27, 2023 · Mark Rothko, Willem de Koon­ing, and Jack­son Pol­lock: they and oth­er artists “cap­tured the world’s atten­tion with large-scale works of pure col­or and form.” This move­ment came to be known as abstract expres­sion­ism, and in the eyes of the new­ly estab­lished Cen­tral Intel­li­gence Agency, it came to show promise as pro­pa­gan­da.

Nov 24, 2017 · In 1968, the infamous art collector Vincent Melzac, an avid patriot and supporter of painters associated with the Washington Color School, loaned 11 abstract paintings to the CIA to hang at its headquarters.

Nov 10, 2010 · Reports from former agents acknowledge what was always a tall tale in the art world—that CIA spooks floated pioneering artists like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Robert Motherwell, to...

Sep 24, 2020 · The Museum of Modern Art was among several institutions that aided the CIA in its propaganda efforts, according to the new book ArtCurious.

Apr 29, 2013 · A 1995 Inde­pen­dent arti­cle on the CIA’s role in pro­mot­ing Abstract Expres­sion­ism describes these atti­tudes dur­ing the Cold War peri­od: In the 1950s and 1960s… the great major­i­ty of Amer­i­cans dis­liked or even despised mod­ern art—President Tru­man summed up the pop­u­lar view when he said: “If that’s ...

This is why the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deftly turned these artists into a propagandist weapon that American culture could wield against the Soviets, even subsidizing their work behind their backs.

Oct 20, 2016 · The CIA’s abstract art collection isn’t as “secret” as a series of articles made it seem—but it’s more politically significant than it appears, and there are still unanswered questions.

Feb 21, 2021 · Abstract Expressionism embodies freedom and personal expression. What a good way for the CIA to combat the rigid style of Socialist Realism.