Modern art was CIA 'weapon' (Congress for Cultural Freedom)

[Montag]

.

Wow. I'm shocked but not surprised.
I'm waiting for the news that the C.I.A. funded punk rock.
Or has that already leaked?

Closest thing that I got to that is that Daniel Estulin says that sex, drugs and rock n roll was a CIA meme...

Also, according to Estulin the Rockefeller family and the Frankfurt School developed rock n roll to divert people away from activism and social justice.

[AlicetheKurious]

I's fun to focus on Pollock and DeKooning as the blunt instrument of the CIA during the 1950s, mostly because to this very day, your average palooka has nothng but disdain for the achievements of the artists of this period and for the historical lineage of their work. The vast, vast majority of individuals are still left confused and disgusted by the high prices these works bring, and by the place of prominence they hold in museums throughout the world.

I'm a palooka!!

[wordspeak2]

There it is- Nelson Rockefeller's "free enterprise art." I had missed that one... what a great quote. I read Saunders' book, "The Cultural Cold War," years ago; it's awesome.

"CIA represents Luciferianism while FBI represents the Ahrimanic impulse"
And wtf is the "Ahrimanic impulse"?

[barracuda]

I hope nobody minds, but I've merged the two threads regarding the Saunders article.

I'm a palooka!!

Okay, I'll admit that comment was fishing for a response.

[justdrew]

And wtf is the "Ahrimanic impulse"?

see Steiner's Anthroposophy -

Christ between Lucifer and Ahriman

Lucifer and his counterpart Ahriman figure in anthroposophy as two polar, generally evil influences on world and human evolution. Steiner described both positive and negative aspects of both figures, however: Lucifer as the light spirit which "plays on human pride and offers the delusion of divinity", but also motivates creativity and spirituality; Ahriman as the dark spirit which tempts human beings to "deny [their] link with divinity and to live entirely on the material plane", but also stimulates intellectuality and technology. Both figures exert a negative effect on humanity when their influence becomes misplaced or one-sided, yet their influences are necessary for human freedom to unfold.[2][4]

According to anthroposophy, each human being has the task to find a balance between these opposing influences, and each is helped in this task by the mediation of the Representative of Humanity, also known as the Christ being, a spiritual entity who stands between and harmonizes the two extremes.[4]

[Montag]

Here's a Fidel column where he talks about the Estulin stuff:
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/reflections ... ones1.html

[yathrib]

Some is truly dreadful, but other artists of this period produced quite interestinjg work, even if little of it was representational or conventionally pretty. The CIA may be a bunch of villainous, coldhearted bastards, but let's give credit where it's due.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

This is yet another example of how far wrong the Birchers, McCarthyites, and in particular Cleon Skousen were about what was really going on in the world at the time.

Skousen believed modern and post-modern artforms were evidence of Marxist-Leninst subversion of the West. He even got his ridiculous list of Communist goals read into the Congressional Record by a sympathetic congressman. Here are the relevant parts of the Red Agenda he outlined:

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. - Skousen claimed that an American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums.

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy." Skousen claimed Communists sought to encourage the practice of masturbation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Communist

If he'd been capable of feeling embarassment, it might've shamed him a bit to discover that his beloved CIA was part-funding the "ugly" art he feared so much. But probably not. Interesting to see that he shared the sexual mores of Christine O'Donnell as well. These types never change.

I'm not the hugest fan of modern art, but I don't get the virulency of the prejudice some folk have against it either. There are people who really hate and fear it. It reminds me of a certain Central European political party's attitude to "degenerate" art - including jazz - during the middle part of the last century (trying not to break Godwin's law here).

At least it's a lot easier to identify CIA-influenced sculpture these days:



Anyone got any dirt on Charles Saatchi? Never trusted his motives for being involved in the art world, or liked the artists he promotes very much. Damien Hirst's alright, I suppose... but Tracey Emin? Why?

[Simulist]

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy." Skousen claimed Communists sought to encourage the practice of masturbation.

No wonder "the Left" are such dirty words then: Skousen was right handed.

[Montag]

Skousen is Glenn Beck's hero according to Wiki...

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Haha, that figures! Both Mormons, both morons. I never realised Skousen lived till 2006, though - and was still active till the end - in fact, beyond the end, with his latest book coming out this year. It's called "The Cleansing of America" - a book of endtime prophecy. No wonder Beck likes him. The guy was churning out nonsense for nearly a hundred years!

[2012 Countdown]

That is a great point Ahab.

I too remember how modern/post mod art was/is seen by some as subversive/communist.

[Montag]

That is a great point Ahab.

I too remember how modern/post mod art was/is seen by some as subversive/communist.

Picasso was a communist.

from: http://www.stamatina.net/projects/archives/214
On March 1, 2010, Yevgeniy Fiks led a guerilla tour of the Museum of Modern Art, focusing on artists from the collection whose careers operated, wholly or in part, in solidarity with the Communist Party. The event was listed as VIP programming with The Armory Show 2010. The artist’s statement:

For the past fifty years, the Museum of Modern Art has been separating artists from their politics and in so doing sanitizing the history of Modern Art. “Communist Tour of MoMA” connects the history of Modern Art to history of the 20th century Communist movement. The project is based on research conducted at the Museum of Modern Art archives in New York, focusing on Modern artists from the MoMA collection whose careers overlapped with the trajectory of the Communist Party.

MoMA is the site of this investigation because of the complexity of its relationship to the issue of Communism in the context of the Cold War and the East/West dichotomy. During the McCarthy Era, Modern Art became the subject of the media and the government’s anti-communist witch-hunt. In his 1949 speech, Michigan U.S. Congressman George A. Dondero called Modern Art subversive, communistic and a weapon in the hands of the Communist conspiracy and the Soviet Union. He named the Museum of Modern Art a site of Communist infiltration. In response to these allegations, MoMA’s curator Alfred H. Barr, Jr. discursively separated artists from their artworks by stating that, “We (MoMA) are not exhibiting the artists, but their works. And the artist’s political believes are personal matters, distinct from his work, which should be judged on its merits.”

After the McCarthy era and for the remainder of the Cold War, however, the Museum of Modern Art became an institution synonymous with Modern Art as an expression of the individualist spirit of the Western democracy as opposed to the state-controlled “Communist” art of Socialist Realism in the countries of the Soviet bloc.

It is a historical fact that myriad Modern artists were members of the Communist Party or had Communist ties. “Communist Tour of MoMA” reveals these facts. “Communist Tour of MoMA” poses questions about the dialectic between the Modern Artist’s work and his/her own political beliefs, the meaning of Communist Art outside and within the context of the Cold War and the fundamental relationship between Communism and Modernism.

[2012 Countdown]

nm

[nathan28]

This is yet another example of how far wrong the Birchers, McCarthyites, and in particular Cleon Skousen were about what was really going on in the world at the time.

Skousen believed modern and post-modern artforms were evidence of Marxist-Leninst subversion of the West. He even got his ridiculous list of Communist goals read into the Congressional Record by a sympathetic congressman. Here are the relevant parts of the Red Agenda he outlined

Probably worth noting that for years and years the cover illustrations on Ayn Rand's books were in an abstracted social realist style.