ABEX - excerpt from Eva Cockroft's 'Abstract Expressionism, Weapon of the COld War'.

The functions of both CIA’s undercover aid operations and The Stoof’s international programs were similar. Freed from the kinds of pressure of unsubtle red-baiting and hyper-jingoism applied to official governmental agencies, CIA and Stoof projects could instead provide the well-funded and more persuasive arguments and exhibits needed to sell the rest of the world on the benefits of life and art under capitalism.

In the world of art, Abstract Expressionism constituted the ideal style for these propaganda activities. It was the perfect contrast to the regimented, traditional, and narrow nature of socialist realism.

It was new, fresh, and creative. Artistically avant-garde and original, Abstract Expressionism could show the United States as culturally up-to-date in competition with Paris. This was possible because Jackson Pollock, as well as most of the other avant-garde American artists, had left behind earlier interest in political activism. On the one hand, the youthful political flirtations of some of the Abstract Expressionists was a liability in terms of gaining congressional approval for government-sponsored cultural projects. On the other, from a cold warrior’s point of view, such linkages to controversial political activities might actually heighten the value of these artists as a propaganda weapon in demonstrating the virtues of freedom of expression in an open and free society.

Heralded as America’s artistic coming of age, Abstract Expressionist painting was exported abroad almost from the beginning. Willem de Kooning’s work was included in the U.S. representation at the Venice Biennale as early as 1948. By 1950, he was joined by Arshile Gorky and Pollock. The U.S. representation at the Biennales in São Paulo, beginning in 1951, averaged three Abstract Expressionists per show. They were also represented at international shows in Venezuela, India, and Japan.


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