A recent article by The Independent uncovers the extensive network of government funding, support and propaganda around American contemporary art during the 1950’s and 60’s as an economic and political weapon against the Communist bloc.  Part of the original scope of the CIA when it was founded in 1947, a program called the Congress for Cultural Freedom was used to promote and disseminate the works of American artists as a symbol of outright cultural freedom of expression.  Says former agent Donald Jameson: “It was recognised that Abstract Expression- ism was the kind of art that made Socialist Realism look even more stylised and more rigid and confined than it was. And that relationship was exploited in some of the exhibitions.”
Read more at The Independent
