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Comment by rexpop | Hacker News Reader

Fun fact! Jackson Pollock, along with other abstract expressionists, was a CIA propaganda asset!

The CIA believed that abstract expressionism, with its unbound and individualistic style, could be associated with American freedoms, so they secretly funded the "Congress for Cultural Freedom", an anti-communist advocacy group that promoted American arts and culture, including abstract expressionism, through international art shows and publications.

Art or writings that touched on US racism (Pollock was contemporaneous with numerous lynchings) and imperialism (Guatemala, Iran, Greece, Korea) were, of course, passed over.

Ever since I learned this, I have lost all emotional appreciation for his works. While before they seemed free, now they seem cheap.

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CIA also promoted jazz music which was very effective in getting European intellectuals and artists to appreciate American culture more.

But I don’t see how that should make you appreciate jazz music itself any more or less.

Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36155204 - June 2023 (332 comments)

https://www.openculture.com/2023/10/how-the-cia-secretly-use...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10462602

When I look at ludicrously priced 'conceptual art' and 'abstract expressionism' I see decadence, not freedom.

The freedom to express a decadence that would be forbidden by the USSR. That's the entire point.

> Ever since I learned this, I have lost all emotional appreciation for his works. While before they seemed free, now they seem cheap.

I don't understand this. Because he got paid for it, the work is cheap? Do you think he would've made different works if the CIA hadn't funded his art shows? I struggle to imagine what a Pollock "about" racism would look like, and how the CIA would notice that it's about racism.

I mean you do you, I don't mean to tell you you can't dislike someone's art. I just really don't get it :D

It reeks of the same stench as cancel culture. Once some people have seen a connection to something they dont like, they just cant bring themselves to enjoy that thing anymore. I guess those sorts of people like to fixate on what they hate.

> I struggle to imagine what a Pollock "about" racism would look like

That Pollock's style cannot address racism is, possibly, why it was promoted over more politically salient schools.

It was a money laundering scheme.

They killed him knowing his art would skyrocket in price. They still have his art on their walls to this day.

This is a vague and baseless conspiracy theory.

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