Art as Politics - Starting Over

[BridgeTheGap]

So, let me get this straight. You say Abstract Expressionism arose at a time when fascism just defeated, having soiled us in battle, returned to our shores as a rabid fear and hatred of Communism, in contradiction of the most basic tenets of free speech in a free society. It was a time when art, itself, was under siege. Actors, artists, and writers were broken and exiled for less than absolute patriotism, and music was banned from the radio. “This land is your land…,” by Woody Guthrie, was never played.

It was then that a new American art form arose to compete with the classicism of Russia’s cultural catalogue – ballets and symphonies, heroic art and gilded subway stations. It seems our own state department may have helped to launch careers in big international expositions of Abstract Art, may even have helped support the foundations which purchased the art for donation to major museums, tax credits funding lavish galas, and abstract art went up in all of New York’s major banks. So, that was all in the name of cold-war competition with the Soviets, and no crippling of our culture was too high a price just to win, but there is still another level.

Before the war, Picasso had begun to combine the visual eloquence of African art with the plastic articulation of his own tradition. One result was the painting “Guernica,” a visual image so potent a reproduction of it was covered during Colin Powell’s justification of war speech to the UN. Mexican Muralists were forging a new peasant solidarity, and the simple sign-making trade of screenprinting, taught in the WPA, was evolving into a visual conversation of thought provoking posters, above and beyond whatever words were written at the bottom. These things were happening before the war.

http://noclexington.com/?p=4430

[midnight]

1. Many artists were blacklisted and destroyed...

"For those of you who lived through the Blacklist Era, we hope this special expanded edition of Screen Actor will be a thought-provoking remembrance of that dark time. For younger members who may have only heard of the Blacklist Era in passing, it is our hope that this special edition will introduce you to a time, in the not too distant past, when American artists were jailed and suffered personal and professional exile because of their political viewpoints."http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/linkbackups/huac_blacklist.htm


"McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, "McCarthyism" soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

Artist like other professions have opinions that were just as quickly silenced...... Maybe that is why abstract art became so pivatol...

[groovedaddy]

2. "Maybe that is why abstract art became so pivotal" - I think that was the point of his article.

Politics and art do often collide!