CIA's Covert Funding of Abstract Expressionism: A Cold War Cultural Weapon

During the Cold War, the CIA secretly promoted Abstract Expressionism as a cultural weapon against Soviet Socialist Realism, funneling millions through front organizations like the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) and shell foundations such as the Farfield Foundation. The agency aimed to showcase American creative freedom and individualism, countering Soviet propaganda. Key figures included MoMA executives Nelson Rockefeller, Thomas Braden, and John Hay Whitney, who had intelligence ties. The CIA organized international tours like 'The New American Painting' (1958–1959), elevating artists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Robert Motherwell to global fame. This shifted the art market's center from Paris to New York. The article also discusses the contrast with Soviet art, which promoted aspirational ideals, and criticizes the CIA's actions as immoral for lowering aesthetic standards. It includes personal reflections from the author, who grew up in the Soviet Union, and notes the ongoing demand for modern art, with recent auction records like Pollock's 'Number 7A' selling for $181.2 million at Christie's.