Summary made with perplexity.ai: The CIA played a key role in spreading Abstract Expressionism and its ideology worldwide to combat the opposing style of Socialist Realism and, by extension, communist culture at large. The CIA saw Abstract Expressionism as an opportunity to promote American culture and values worldwide. The agency employed covert methods to make Abstract Expressionism so popular that it became quite difficult for an artist to find success working in any other style. The Congress for Cultural Freedom, an organization funded by the CIA, gave the agency the ideal front to promote its covert interest in Abstract Expressionism.
Some links from which this summary comes from: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html https://www.thecollector.com/abstract-expressionism-waging-a-cultural-cold-war-2/ https://www.theartstory.org/movement/socialist-realism/ https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artcurious-cia-art-excerpt-1909623 https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-did-the-cia-sponsor-jackson-pollock/
It’s crazy to think how much CIA shaped the path of art, if all that is true. They may also have influenced in the popularization of avant-garde American classical music composers, like John Cage. I wonder to which extent CIA is responsible for the widespread of American-made cultural products, like pop music, rock and fast foods, and which artistic or cultural movements became influential throught artifficial means (instead of organically become succesful due to artistic merit).
An additional note: a similar thing may have happened internally in Brazil. I once heard that the Brazilian musical genre “Sertanejo Universitário”, that skyrocketed in popularity during the 2000s and early 2010s to become one of the most popular Brazilian musical genres, may have owe part of this success to a funding from the big agribusiness players, which aimed to strengthen their monopoly over small poducers, or smothing like that.
Now i feel kinda funny about that. I generally like realism in art and for that reason i was attacked basically every time the art is the topic of conversation, especially about socialist realism.
Turns out, the “left conspiracy theories” meme is insufficient, because fucking CIA had their hands with things i even didn’t suspected.
Also Zhdanov yet again vindicated.
“I wonder to which extent (the) CIA is responsible for the widespread of American-made cultural products, like pop music, rock and fast foods, and which artistic or cultural movements became influential through artificial means.”
I’m willing to wager they influence it far more than we think. Given military involvement in Hollywood and competitive FPS gaming it’s very much not out of the question for them to have influence in other forms of art and entertainment. Especially with china’s entertainment industry on the rise with tiktok blowing up and video games like genshin impact being immensely successful, we have been and will continue to see an increase in state interest and involvement in art and entertainment.
