ISOLATION Acrylic on Board
This work satirises the hyper-masculine and (as we have recently discovered) politically questionable nature of Abstract Expressionism’s rise to fame. Although a great fan (thesis on Robert Motherwell) I’ve always found this movement’s rise rather bothering and inseparable from the cold war. It turns out that American “expressionism” was covertly promoted by the CIA as a beacon of liberalism, countering the notion of Soviet realist dogma.
We now know that this security service funded European promotional shows of Abstract Expressionism in the 50’s and 60’s via the “Congress for Cultural Freedom” and the “International Organisation Division” that legitimized a “Long Leash” influence over cultural offices in no less than 35 countries, including the funding of magazines and huge survey shows, not least the 58-59 tour in every main European city of “The New American Painting”, “Modern Art in the United States (1955) and “Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century” 1952. We will never know if the established gravitas associated with “the expressive gesture” would have taken a slightly different turn without the CIA’s capital involvement.
Isolation’s small scale ridicules the idea that physicality and scale equates automatically to quality, sublimity and serious artistic endeavour. The capital investment in large studios with aspirant museum-scaled art is still a quality the art world hold as fiat.
Maybe history will conclude that “Abstract Expressionism’s” seemingly fresh origin became (through lack of political and social alternatives) the final tired mannerist symbol of capitalism’s largesse. I hope not.
We now know that this security service funded European promotional shows of Abstract Expressionism in the 50’s and 60’s via the “Congress for Cultural Freedom” and the “International Organisation Division” that legitimized a “Long Leash” influence over cultural offices in no less than 35 countries, including the funding of magazines and huge survey shows, not least the 58-59 tour in every main European city of “The New American Painting”, “Modern Art in the United States (1955) and “Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century” 1952. We will never know if the established gravitas associated with “the expressive gesture” would have taken a slightly different turn without the CIA’s capital involvement.
Isolation’s small scale ridicules the idea that physicality and scale equates automatically to quality, sublimity and serious artistic endeavour. The capital investment in large studios with aspirant museum-scaled art is still a quality the art world hold as fiat.
Maybe history will conclude that “Abstract Expressionism’s” seemingly fresh origin became (through lack of political and social alternatives) the final tired mannerist symbol of capitalism’s largesse. I hope not.
