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NEW REPORT FOR OCTOBER INCOMING

For October I decided to do something a little different and dig my grubby little paws into art history for a change! The PSYOP report is about the history of the CIA propagandizing Abstract Expressionism to promote free enterprise capitalism during the Cold War. It's a story about the Rockefeller family, CIA money fronts, angry congressman, and drunken artists. It's honestly one of the most fascinating and consequential chapters in American art history. The report concludes with my thoughts about how and why the legacy of this CIA psyop still impacts artists today. 

Currently ahead of schedule writing this one so expect it verrrrrryyy sooooonnnnn ... ... ....... 

NEW REPORT FOR OCTOBER INCOMING

Comments

Why are t these reports showing up in my feed?

Scott

Cant wait:)

trinkett

How soon? 👀

Yessss really looking forward to this, Brad 🙏🏼 I used to joke about MFA programs being a giant psyop after a very not great collaborative, long term brainstorming experience with some colleagues at the ol’ alma mater where it felt like everyone’s heads had been scrambled in the same way. Pedagogical solutions proposed for the problems of a radically changed art world (never mind real world) seemed inevitably conservative, short sighted, and individual responsibility focused. Then I read that Saunders book and that started to seem less and less crazy. Those cultural investments throughout the Cold War were like…haven’t figured out how to say it…like the primitive accumulation of the whole postwar American culture industry. When all you can see is an art world totally subsumed by the dumb machinations of art fairs, promoting utterly deradicalized, designer tchotchkes (whose makers still, somehow seem to be regarded as aperpetually reproducing paradox of the “avant-garde”), Nelson Rockefeller’s bit about Ab Ex being “free enterprise painting” starts to feel a little haunting. Also it still explains a lot about how so many American arts could have their heads up their asses about Cuba. Anywho, really looking forward to it ✌🏼

Nando Alvarez-Perez


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