Abstract Expressionism, New York School, and Cultural Politics

Regionalism and Socialist Realism: Represented by artists like Grant Wood ( $American\ Gothic$ , $1930$ ) and Thomas Hart Benton ( $City\ Building$ from $America\ Today$ , $1930$ ).
Limitations: By the $1950s$ , the naturalism and nostalgia of these styles were deemed insufficient to respond to the devastation of WWII.
New York School (AbEx): Emerged from conditions of war, alienation, and a loss of faith in old forms. Artists explored Existentialism and psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Jung.

Shift of Gravity: WWII damaged Europe's cultural centers, causing a shift from Paris to New York City by the early $1940s$ .
Refuge for Émigrés: New York became a hub for progressive artists including Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Andre Masson, and Hans Hofmann.
Metropolis as Form: Piet Mondrian (e.g., $Broadway\ Boogie\ Woogie$ , $1942-43$ ) viewed the modern city as "abstract life given form," translating urban rhythms and jazz into geometric abstraction.

Gestural Painters (Action Painting): Focused on the spontaneous touch and "handwriting" of the artist. The canvas was viewed as an "arena in which to act." - Pioneers: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning ( $Woman\ I$ , $1950-1952$ ), and Franz Kline.
Color Field Painters: Utilized large, unified color areas to make abstract statements. - Artists: Mark Rothko ( $Untitled$ , $1949$ ), Barnett Newman ( $Onement\ 1$ , $1948$ ), Clyfford Still, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, and Ad Reinhardt.
Spiritual Influence: Roberto Matta introduced psychic/spiritual automatism to the group between $1939$ and $1948$ .

Hilma af Klint Podcast: Discussion focused on the formal qualities of her paintings and her role as an overlooked female artist in the origins of Modern Art.
Historical Gaps: Examining the timeline between the $1910s$ and $1940s$ ; focus on work like $Group\ X,\ No.\ 1,\ Altarpiece$ , $1915$ .

Cold War Ideology: From $1941$ to $1997$ , the U.S. and Soviet Union engaged in an ideological war. The U.S. used fine art as a tool of "psychological and cultural warfare" to demonstrate cultural superiority.
Propaganda vs. Freedom: Abstract Expressionism symbolized "freedom of expression" without censorship, contrasting with state-dictated Soviet art. Dwight D. Eisenhower ( $1954$ ) emphasized that free artists are not "tools of the state."
Funding and Funneling: The CIA created the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to fund international exhibitions like "The New American Painting" ( $1958-1959$ ). Money was funneled through secret arms like the Fairfield Foundation and individuals like Julius Fleischmann.
Institutional Validation: In a major shift, the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased Jackson Pollock’s $Autumn\ Rhythm$ for $30,000$ a year after his death, signaling high-level institutional support for contemporary abstraction.