Hidden Hands – A Different History of Modernism – episode 1: Art and the CIA

47 thoughts on “Hidden Hands – A Different History of Modernism – episode 1: Art and the CIA”

1. 11:55 (Tom Braden.)

   I wonder if the popularization of the Beats and, a little later, of Ken Kelsey, of psychedelic experiences, and of other elements of what became American and British counterculture were part of this same cultural strategy. I suspect so. Things that would be considered "subversive" in many eyes (including Soviet and KGB eyes) became advantages as elements of edgy, boundary pushing cultural movements that celebrated individual freedom and liberty of mind. If so, it seems to me we're better for it — much as I dislike the elitism and clandestine paternalism involved.

2. The government are nothing but corrupt liars (true then, now, and years from now), how do we know they actually funded abstract expressionism and all these magazines? It’s easy enough for them to say they have. If they have receipts they could just manufacture them.

3. ß¡łch

4. They were probably using crappy abstract art, like Jackson Pollok's barf paintings to launder money.

5. 38:38 The real purpose of the 1948 Marshall Plan was to funnel undocumented funds to create the newly founded country called Israel. Google, "Marshall Plan Fraud".

6. This is equivilant to the gov legalizing weed!

7. Interesting last two minutes of the video…not the documentary, but the uploaded video itself. Kandinsky at play.

8. THINK OF WHAT THEY DO WITH MUSIC! ALL IS SOCIAL MANIPULATION!

9. Koyote

10. What is the painting at the end of part 1? That is obviously a representation of the battle for Heaven. One can clearly make out the a face, presumably the Lord's, when the camera begins it's dolly. When it stops, the Morning Star is obviously just off center frame. Pitchfork & all. Are these the burned in images of an apostate doubter, who spent his adolescence in catechism? Or is that the power of abstract expressionism's ability to tap directly into the reptilian brain?
    I'd still like the name of that painting..

11. There always a but,hate it ,but it is 🎨art

12. They went from liberal to communist Nazis in 2021!?

13. Russia pioneered abstraction and was very advanced until Stalin. However America and western culture have become entrenched in modernism and abstraction . The institutions rejected figurative arts and skills only now some of it is making a come back.

14. Clement Greenberg = Ellsworth Toohey..

15. If the Soviets and Communist China decided what the state patronised as art, the Americans decided what sold for the most money, became recognised as art.

16. "If that's art, then I'm a Hottentot.." White-self-hate in a nutshell.

17. Thanks for this so interesting and necessary document about the history of American Abstract Expresionist Art.

18. If anything this makes the story of the art more interesting and I’m actually a little embarrassed that it never occurred to me. Art has always been involved with power and agenda. What’s funny though is that I’ve always taken social liberal and even further left lessons from modern art even though the elitism was plain even though I didn’t realize the cia effect!

19. É muito bom ver o patriotismo cego dos norte-americanos, principalmente do governo dos Estados Unidos, e de como eles não veem nada de errado em patrocinar a "arte" contra o povo trabalhador e oprimido pelo mundo que estavam lutando para tornar o mundo um local melhor para todos, para os trabalhadores, transformar esse mundo horrível das consequência do Capitalismo e do Imperialismo que destrói tudo ao nosso redor.

20. Communism will win in the End.

21. Was this what Frances stonor saunders wrote about .?

22. The way this kind of art came about I think was still organic. Art teachers were less and less educating their students on art history and classical ways of creating visual arts. This is really what you get when someone is not educated. You can't do it as easily with music because it's much more apparent.

23. Well, this will shock, just SHOCK many of you but the CIA guy gave us false information here : 2:19 Fascism and Socialism are polar opposites. Fascism and Communism are opposing ideologies.

24. Burn on hell cia cockroaches

25. Re-reinventing

26. I could wish our current governments made this kind of investment in soft power initiatives.

27. The Romantic individual hero is not only an American idea.

28. Cultural Cold War? What a bogus term… It's call the dominant culture, which curbs thought, freedom and choice.
    Fuck this Peggy Guggenheim patronage and CIA Balls. CIA is responsible for murder, terrorism, genocide and war.

29. All Soviet bloc countries did,still do, so why don't you make programmes about this. ???

30. and?

31. Saunders, an employee of the CIA.

32. Obviously the best way to prove that free market capitalism can create art is for the government to pay for it.

33. "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” – Henry Ford

34. We'll know our disinformation PROGRAM is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” William Casey, CIA Director

35. "The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media."
    ~William Colby, former CIA Director

36. The cold war is still being fought in some minds. As is the fear of abstract art still alive.

37. By earth standards, the USA is still a babe with arms, deadly .

38. wow, thats why YouTube is for……

39. "we want to make something opposition to the soviet union which controlled what you say/make." as we mandate and fund specific works to be made by the government….. lol no contradiction

40. Wow !!!

    Unbelievable !!!

    The FBI was accused of doing the same thing inside the USA !!!

    Review an interview by an FBI operative, named Mr. Darthard Perry !!!

41. 47:05 Are we just going to do nothing and pretend not everything about him screams child fondler?

42. lol why did they open the door to put the briefcase through?

43. Hmm this wasn't what I learned in Art history 101 and 102

44. The CIA is still involved today in cultural activities inside the US and outside the US through child rights, gay rights, women's rights, and other groups of useful idiots that destabilize societies when US interests are threatened.

45. 32:26 Now that doesn't look at all like a man with a plan!

46. The government is a busy body.

47. So happy I can watch this

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