Political Intervention in the Art World

A Special Note on Abstract Expressionism, a personal account.

 

 

Premise: (What ails thee?)

Very synthetically. It is there to see for the intellectually honest: historically, in our social order, there has always been the privileged few and the exploited many.

From what can be deduced, the atavic privileged class has an oligarchical structure and for the most part is supra-national, apolitical, invisible and substantially amoral (though adherent to its own morality). It is intent on preserving its hegemonic prowess at all costs and its natural enemy is the masses; the consequential objective is full spectrum dominance. The strategies are many.

The evolution of art, and just about everything else, has to traverse this critical socio-political and, in fact, anthropological phenomenon. This affliction on our individual and social expression seeks to dispute individuality, and relegate it within a collective labyrinth. The absolute need for sophistication in this millenary process of control demonstrates how this situation is anti-universal, unnatural and wrong on any level of interpretation. (Even for the perpetrators.)

To gain standing, we must observe and recognize the strategies used to disengage us from meaningful criticism. Along with any combination of the tried and true “divide and

conquer” and “bread and circuses”, there are more contemporary tactics such as the instrumentalization of moral and political "correctness" or the permanent ubiquity of the left/right paradigms that are, in fact, the two wings of the same vulture!

But more relevant to our account is another subtle form of manipulation that I would describe as defensive usurpation. Here, the controlling organisms do not wage a frontal attack on the universal ideas or movements that may transform an "ordered" pseudo-democratic society into true civilization but take those threatening ideas and, make them their own. With infinite resources in play, the direction and outcome can be easily determined and the danger turned into self-preservation. This has been done many times and in many fields, the list is tragically complete: spirituality, history, political and social movements, economics, culture, sexuality, health, nutrition, science, technology, information etc. ... so why not the arts?

 

"The perfect dictatorship would have the appearance of democracy, a prison without walls in which the prisoners would not dream of escape. A system of slavery where, through consumption and entertainment, slaves would love their servitude." Attributed to Aldous Huxley, elitist prophet.

 

 

Abstract Expressionism: to the point

(On a certain level ... ) After WWII, American-Soviet rivalry brought on the beginnings of the cold war narrative. After the first Russian successes in space, the USA had an urgency to counter on the world propagandistic stage. Enter, the emerging American art movement, Abstract Expressionism. This was an opportunity to contain an abstract interpretation of reality that would contend many established paradigms and at the same time, put the USA at the center of a new cultural revolution. (N.B. In this, the secret services helped sponsor the movement, facilitating the outcome.)

So here is a case of a perfectly legitimate and valid movement usurped and co-opted. To complete and qualify the narrative there was much public controversy, polemics, tragedy, unprecedented market quotations, related crappy art, and more and more controversy that continues to this day. For the general public, this confusion would disqualify the current's core principles from meaningful investigation. And the established Art World stands accomplice.

In my opinion, this cultural movement that would put realism and materialism into question, had the potential to impact many improper popular paradigms (and thus the threat). In modern artistic terms, realism, like the visible spectrum, is only a small part of the story, the pretty face. Abstraction is the exploration of the rest of the anatomy: a holistic narration towards true vision and heightened self-awareness. 

 

 

(Esoteric) Conclusion:

As suggested elsewhere on this site, life and art (and truth) share intrinsic interdependence; abstraction can describe this relationship in universal terms for the appreciation of all those willing to shed the veils of historic and materialistic indoctrination. This would push the boundaries of the collective consciousness (tribal) towards that of the connected consciousness (true civilization), a more evolved state of the individual through a more evolved state of perception and creativity.