splitting a canvas in two is a perfect "art form" that anyone can do to launder some millions into "honestly earned" money...
Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)
81–90 of 264 posts
Re: Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you saying modern art is positive?
Do you not appreciate art?
Should we appreciate art we were manipulated into liking, or pretending to appreciate?
Modern art has been the butt of many jokes over the years. A canvas painted white, a banana duck taped to a wall, literal piles of trash… the bar for what we call art is basically on the floor. A literal bar on the floor, given a good story, could itself be called art.
Art generally implies some level of skill. While some modern art can still fall into that category, other stuff requires no real skill, just the right connections and for enough people to buy into the grift.
Re: Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)
#83The CIA didn’t invent the camera which was really the trigger for the arrival of modern art and the abandonment of representation everywhere in the world. At the same time though, if you go somewhere like the Guggenheim in Bilbao, upon leaving that fantastic building it does occur to you that the whole thing is an outpost for American artistic culture, or if you want to frame it another way, American cultural imperia…
Art became an investment and artistic properties ceased to matter.
Re: Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)
#84Soft power - Russian ballet, Japanese manga, k-pop.
True Soft Power - Hollywood, and associated media industry, which happens to be the platform through which "Russian ballet, Japanese manga, k-pop", etc. reach people.
With the Internet and some competing heavy-weights, it may no longer be an US soft superpower it was before, but it still retains its important quality: it's ubiquitous, ever-present, and so enormous it's hard to notice - much like fish don't think much about the water they swim in.
Re: Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)
#85Not the first time when the Default Country thinks they invented everything. The title is almost comical.
Modern art, as everyone should know, started in 1860s in Europe inspired by technological advances, globalization of trade and cultural exchange. Japanese art made huge blast, photography pushed to seek new forms of expression, social progress demanded new messages and new images. We had impressionism, post-impressionism, then the whole explosion of artistic forms and ideas in 1910s-1930s. All of that was Modern Art.
CIA was founded in 1947 and CIA-sponsored soft power projection was a relatively short period in the world history lasting just a few decades, a part of the bigger game played between the USA and the Soviets, which did exactly the same (and thanks to whom we have now e.g. Studio Ghibli).
Re: Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)
#86Incredible to believe the CIA has more sway over artistic movements than actual artists.
More incredible to believe the most powerful clandestine agency in the world wouldn't want to hold sway over artistic movements to their own end.
Re: Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)
#87The CIA didn’t invent the camera which was really the trigger for the arrival of modern art and the abandonment of representation everywhere in the world. At the same time though, if you go somewhere like the Guggenheim in Bilbao, upon leaving that fantastic building it does occur to you that the whole thing is an outpost for American artistic culture, or if you want to frame it another way, American cultural imperia…
Art became an investment and artistic properties ceased to matter.
The bankers could make the art themselves then, if that were the case. Fine art still needs to be made by artists. Conceptual art can be made by anyone with a concept.
Re: Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)
#88Incredible to believe the CIA has more sway over artistic movements than actual artists.
And the CIA actually had rather good taste
Re: Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)
#89Not the first time when the Default Country thinks they invented everything. The title is almost comical. Modern art, as everyone should know, started in 1860s in Europe inspired by technological advances, globalization of trade and cultural exchange. Japanese art made huge blast, photography pushed to seek new forms of expression, social progress demanded new messages and new images. We had impressionism, post-impre…
By "modern art" they mean things like abstract expressionism.
Re: Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am starting to be under the impression that movements are steered by leaders but formed only when the underlying conditions are present. No single element can make the movement. I am reluctant to believe stories like "The CIA created modern art", as it is just a single part, although a very influential part, of the movement. I say this as somebody who is very cautious about believing anything and am quick to call t…
Is the claim “created”? My understanding is that the CIA influenced the rise of modern art over Soviet realism, eg, by hosting shows and bidding up prices. That is “created” in the sense that a movement would have been smaller or fizzled without their patronage, but not “created” as in invented absent an underlying cohort of sincere artists. If you believe the CIA was an important and necessary part of the movement,…
>would have been smaller or fizzled without their patronage
this seems entire implausible. Many of the expressionist, surrealist or modernist artists were European refugees who fled fascism, the government apparently spent less on their efforts than an average regional election today costs, and expressionism still exists.
This is the American equivalent of one of those 'are the Chinese behind this' conspiracies every time anything Chinese starts to be popular. Governments who can't get things done for billions apparently suddenly can invent entire art forms with a few million bucks.
No doubt there were people who thought abstract art would make for good advertisement for American liberalism, but no they did not invent, steer or even meaningfully influence it