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'A Partnership of Equals': Kennedy, the European Union and the End of
Abstract Expressionism as an Atlanticist Aesthetic
Nancy Jachec
To cite this Article Jachec, Nancy(2002) ''A Partnership of Equals': Kennedy, the European Union and the End of Abstract
Expressionism as an Atlanticist Aesthetic', Third Text, 16: 2, 105 — 118
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/09528820210138263
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09528820210138263
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Third Text, Vol. 16, Issue 2, 2002, 105-118
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‘A Partnership of Equals’:
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Kennedy, the European Union
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and the End of Abstract
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Expressionism as an
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Atlanticist Aesthetic
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1. See, for example, Max
20 Kozloff, ‘American Nancy Jachec
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21 see Spencer Di Scala, also more prosaic reasons for this emphasis on mass culture. The USIA
Renewing Italian
22 Socialism, Nenni to Craxi maintained at that time that the mass arts were the only ones that were
23 Oxford University Press, both ‘truly representative’ of the American people and comprehensible
24 Oxford, 1988, pp to their audiences. It therefore turned a blind eye to art that was ‘non-
110–14; in France, see
25 Sue Ellen M. Charlton, representational to the point of obscurity’.16
26 The French Left and Not all government representations of the visual arts abroad during
European Integration, Eisenhower’s presidency, however, would be subject to congressional
27
Denver, University of
28 Denver, 1972, p 16, p 20, scrutiny. The CIA at this time was being given increasing power and
29 pp 33–4. autonomy, and as early as February 1954 the USIA–State Department
30 13. Robert E Elder, The clashed with it over cultural policy for Europe. While it was clear to the
31 Information Machine, government as a whole that culture was the new battleground on
The USIA and American
32 Foreign Policy, Syracuse
which the struggle for Western Europe was taking place, the CIA was
33 University Press, New highly critical of the USIA, deeming it unable to respond to regional
34 York, 1968, pp 1–2, p needs.17 Noting that ‘there is a recognition that many US objectives are
10.
35 mutually applicable to two or more European countries’ and that they
36 14. Ibid., p 39. ‘have common interests which it is to our advantage to forward’,18 the
37 15. August Heckscher, ‘Notes promotion of a sympathetic culture, in the view of the CIA, was now
38 on Meeting to Discuss crucial. For the Truman and Eisenhower administrations had always
White House Policy on
39 Advisory Committee on assumed that European unification would include a friendly
40 the Arts’, 12 May 1962; partnership with the United States with which it had ‘shared
August Heckscher Papers, interests’.19 By this time, however, government agencies across the
41 John F Kennedy Library,
42 Boston, MA. JFK board were increasingly worried by the spread of neutralist sentiments,
43 Library; ‘Schlesinger, particularly amongst the unaligned leftist intelligentsia in France and
‘Memorandum to
44 President Kennedy’, 30
Italy, who were powerful shapers of public opinion.20 To make matters
45 January 1963. Heckscher worse, Soviet investment in cultural programmes to Western Europe
46 Papers. was accelerating at this time.21
47 16. Andrew Berding, ‘The Only one month after the CIA attacked the USIA for its
48 Arts as Our ineffectiveness, Eisenhower approved NSC 5412/1, which ‘confirmed
Ambassador’, Art Digest,
49 28:4, 15 November 1953, the unassailable position of the CIA in conducting covert operations’.22
50 pp 4–5. Immediately, it launched an initiative for European unity, working
51 17. ‘Office Memorandum…’, primarily through the European Movement.23 This organisation,
52 op. cit., p 1. headed by the foreign secretaries from Britain, France, Italy and West
108
21 Activities in Western aesthetic commenced. For, already a special adviser to the president,
22 Europe during 1955’, 1 and a member of the NSC, Rockefeller was also a financial and
March 1956, p 10; Office
23 of Research Intelligence administrative pillar of the museum his mother helped to found, the
24 Bulletins, Memorandums Museum of Modern Art, New York.30 Thus, Rockefeller was well
25 and Summaries, 1954–56, placed to employ the museum’s International Program (IP) to
Records of the USIA;
26 NACP. undertake fine art exchanges.
27 The relationship between the federal government and the Museum
21. Jachec, op. cit., p 161, p
28 187; Larson, op. cit., p of Modern Art was certainly encouraged by the Rockefeller brothers,
29 110. who from early on fostered links between them. For example, David
30 22. Dockrill, op. cit., pp Rockefeller was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations,
31 150–1. described by Frances Stonor Saunders as ‘a private think-tank made up
32 23. OCB, ‘Memorandum to of America’s corporate and social elite, which acted as a kind of
33 the Executive Officer, shadow foreign policy-making unit’.31 Initially preoccupied with
OCB, March 31, 1954’, p
34 3; CIA Documents, LoC.
political, economic and financial policy, in 1952 it began to
35 See also IRI Intelligence incorporate cultural matters into its remit, and on the advice of David
36 Summary, ‘Communist Rockefeller, René d’Harnoncourt, director of the Museum of Modern
Propaganda Activities in
37 Western Europe during Art, New York, joined the Council in December.32 Five months earlier,
38 1955, March 1, 1956’, p the IP had been set up with funds provided by the Rockefeller Brothers
39 10; Office of Research Fund. Initially an in-house organisation, it would soon form the
Intelligence Bulletins,
40 Memorandums and nucleus of the International Council at MoMA (IC), which was
41 Summaries, 1954–1956, launched the following year.33 While the records for the meetings of the
Records of the USIA; IC are largely unavailable to researchers, we know that it was a hand-
42
NACP.
43 picked group of individuals, and substantially underwritten by the
24. European Movement,
44
Europe Unite!, London,
USIA, according to Porter McCray.34 McCray, we shall see shortly, was
45 1951, p 1. the politically well-connected director of the IP at this time and the
46 25. OCB, ‘Memorandum,
most strident supporter of Abstract Expressionism abroad. He would
47 March 31, 1954’, op. cit., curate Jackson Pollock 1912–1956 and The New American Painting,
48 p 10. the exhibitions that launched Abstract Expressionism’s international
49 26. Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, career as an Atlanticist art form.
50 The CIA and American Significantly, some of the early core members of the IC, which
Democracy, London,
51 Yale University Press,
included André Malraux, Herbert Read, Willem Sandberg and Lionello
52 1989, p 92. Venturi, would also have provided a good opportunity for ascertaining
109
21 Modern Art, New York, was the People-to-People Program’s Fine Art Committee. Established
22 1994, p 110. in Washington DC on 18 February 1957, its members included both
23 31. Stonor Saunders, Who Porter McCray of the Department of Circulating Exhibitions at
24 Paid the Piper?, p 137. MoMA, and William Burden, president of MoMA, and Julius
25 32. ‘Letter from George S Fleischmann, described by Stonor Saunders as ‘the most significant
Franklin, Jr, to René front man of the CIA’s cultural campaigns in Europe’.42 This
26 d’Harnoncourt,
27 December 4, 1952’, and committee would prove to be the international springboard for
28 ‘Letter from René Abstract Expressionism. For MoMA had been busy interpreting
d’Harnoncourt to David
29 Rockefeller, December
European responses to its previous exhibitions to determine which
30 18, 1952’, René artists had the desired political effects. Thus in May 1956 the IC
31 d’Harnoncourt Papers, circulated its assessments of Twelve American Painters and Sculptors
Archives of American Art
32 AAA, roll 2924.
(1952–53) and Modern Art in the United States (1954–55), both of
33 which had been pluralist, including works that ranged from the social
33. Helen Franc, op. cit., pp
34 109–10, pp 120–2. realism of John Kane to the gestural abstraction of Jackson Pollock.
35 The assessments showed that Pollock was by far the most provocative.
34. At a meeting of the ACA,
36 McCray noted the The centre and the centre left saw his work as emblematic of the
37 underwriting of the Western condition at mid-century, taking American Abstract
38 European shows by the Expressionism to embody the same political values as Europe’s own
USIA. ‘Second Meeting of
39 the ACA, 9.30 a.m.’, 13 indigenous gesture painting. The hard left, on the other hand, rejected
40 May 1958, New York it as a complete and irredeemable departure from rational thought
City; General Records of and the betterment of the human condition promised in dialectical
41 the ACA 1951–1962,
42 General Records of the theory.43 As we shall see next, this early indicator of Abstract
43 Department of State, Expressionism as an Atlanticist aesthetic was soon reinforced by
NACP.
44 findings from the People-to-People Program, out of which the
45 35. The International Council Abstract Expressionist shows Jackson Pollock 1912–1956 and The
of The Museum of
46 Modern Art, The First
New American Painting developed.
47 Forty Years, New York, Although his career was primarily in museums, Porter McCray had
48 Museum of Modern Art, long been a quasi-political figure. He met Nelson Rockefeller while
1993, p 127.
49 training in architecture and the fine arts at Yale, and what followed
50 36. Geoffrey T Harris, André was a long, intertwining career in art and politics.44 Moving between
Malraux, A Reassessment,
51 London, Macmillan, the Section of the Cultural Relations Division of the Office of the
52 1996, p 1, p 7, pp 10–16. Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs and the Inter-American
110
21 People-to-People ‘Confronting a blank canvas they attempt “to grasp authentic being by
Program’, p 4. Barr
22 Papers, AAA, roll 2182. action, decision, a leap of faith”, to use Karl Jaspers’ Existentialist
23 phrase’. Noting that there were often ‘Existentialist echoes in their
50. ‘Letter from Palma
24 Bucarelli to Alfred Barr, words’, he explained that this was restricted to their work. While they
25 May 20, 1957’, and ‘defiantly reject the conventional values of the society which surrounds
‘Letter from Porter them’, the artists were not ‘politically engagés even though their
26
McCray to Palma
27 Bucarelli, June 25, 1957’, paintings have been praised and condemned as symbolic
28 AAA, Barr Papers, roll demonstrations of freedom in a world in which freedom connotes a
2198.
29 political attitude’.55 Their retreat from political engagement to
30 51. Porter McCray, ‘Letter to existentialist cultural critique represented, to Barr, the political
Palma Bucarelli’, 11
31 February 1958. Archivio
maturation of a generation of ‘romantic’ American leftists who had
32 Storico della Galleria been ‘naively attracted by Communism’ at the end of the 1930s.56
33 Nazionale d’Arte The European curators, for their part, certainly helped to promote
Moderna, Roma
34 ASGNAM.
this interpretation of Abstract Expressionism.57 As we have seen,
35 Bucarelli was more than willing to present American gesture painting as
52. Palma Bucarelli, ‘Jean
36 Fautrier’, in Catalogo an Atlanticist aesthetic, and her views were typical of those of most of
37 della XXX Biennale di her European colleagues. Rüdlinger, in his essay for the German-
38 Venezia, ed. Ente language catalogue, described Abstract Expressionism as finding its
Autonomo, Stamperia di
39 Venezia, Venice, 1960, pp social and artistic ‘open-mindedness’ in the work of Jaspers, Kierkegaard
40 149–51; Palma Bucarelli, and Heidegger, yet Whitmanesque at the same time in its naturalness and
‘Presentazione’, Jackson spontaneity.58 Likewise, Franco Russoli, who wrote the catalogue essay
41 Pollock 1912–1956,
42 Rome, Galleria Nazionale for the Italian showing of The New American Painting, argued that it
43 d’Arte Moderna Roma, was because gesture painting was grounded in existentialism’s
1958, unpaginated.
44 ASGNAM.
understanding of individual perception and its role in the formation of
45 morality and hence social values that both cultures were on nothing less
53. ‘Note by the Artist’,
46 Jackson Pollock
than a ‘road traveled together’.59 Russoli is almost certain to have been a
47 1912–1956, Musée de functionary of Italy’s pro-American, and pro-integrationist, Christian
48 l’art moderne, Paris, Democratic Party. Director of the Brera in Milan, and soon to be a
1958, p 5.
49 member of the IC, he became involved with the Venice Biennale in 1957,
50 54. Sam Hunter, when its directorate was being purged of communists and socialists, and
‘Introduction’, Jackson
51 Pollock 1912–1956, pp the Christian Democratic ministers of parliament in charge of the
52 9–10. exhibition were replacing them with their own people.60
112
1 55. Alfred Barr, Jr, Of all the curators of these exhibitions, Jean Cassou, head of the
2 ‘Introduction’, The New Museum of Modern Art, Paris, however, was muted regarding the
American Painting,
3 Museum of Modern Art,
Atlanticist elements in American Abstract Expressionism. This is
4 New York, 1959, pp arguably because he never relinquished his commitment to the left.61
5 15–16. Unwilling to host either exhibition – he had originally booked Jackson
6 56. Ibid, p 17. Pollock for June of 1958, but postponed it to January 1959 – he
7 57. Jachec, op. cit., pp 201–4. similarly cancelled The New American Painting, preferring to show the
8 See also Jeremy Lewison, museum’s own collections in the newly refurbished galleries.62 ‘After
9 ‘Jackson Pollock and the political and diplomatic pressure was brought to bear on him’, Jeremy
Americanization of
10 Europe’, Jackson Pollock, Lewison has noted, Cassou ‘agreed to take both shows simultaneously
11 New Approaches, ed. … but … he and his staff were not supportive of them’.63 Accordingly,
Museum of Modern Art,
12 New York, Abrams, New
Cassou’s text for The New American Painting was terse and avoided
13 York, 1999, pp 201–31. any discussion of the philosophical underpinnings of the American
14 58. Arnold Rüdlinger,
school. While noting that the new American painting had its analogue
15 ‘Vorwort’, Die Neue in European tachisme, he identified it most closely with Walt Whitman,
16 Amerikanische Malerei, the ‘autochthonous’ American.64 Naturism, primordial and pre-, if not
Basel, 1958, unpaginated.
17 anti-rational was, in Cassou’s view, at the heart of American identity.65
18 59. Franco Russoli, Interestingly, although Cassou had broken off his close relations with
‘Prefazione’, La Nuova
19 Pittura Americana, Milan, the Communist Party in 1949, his comments were not dissimilar to
20 1958, p 9. those critiques appearing in the French communist press accusing
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21 60. Giovanni Ponti to Dottore Pollock of having ‘turned off the light of reason in himself and in his
22 Guido Oliva, Head of work’.66
23 Cabinet, Ministry of Cassou notwithstanding, the interest in constructing gesture
Public Instruction,
24 26.1.60, ‘Rapporto, Gli painting as an Atlanticist aesthetic appears to have been largely shared
25 inviti e le polemiche per la by the European centrists and their American counterparts. In France
partecipazione Italiana
26 alla XXX Biennale di
and Italy in particular, the promotion of this aesthetic was calculated
27 Venezia’, 285; Archivio to win over those socialists on the right as opposed to the left flank of
28 Centrale dello Stato, their party, and what would emerge from this split amongst the
Roma. This is a report
29 commissioned by the
socialists would be the centre left.67 In order to bring recalcitrant leftists
30 Ministry of Public on board, gesture painting’s advocates exploited its parallel
31 Instruction from Ponti to development in Europe and the United States.
defend his presence at the
32 Biennales since 1945 as
This parallelism had been noted by French critics throughout the
33 having no political previous 10 years, who understood the ‘second School of Paris’ to
34 motives. include gesture painters Atlan, Bazaine, Corneille, Deyrolle, Estève,
35 61. David Caute, Hartung, Lapoujade, Manessier, Pignon, Poliakov, Schneider, Soulages
36 Communism and the and Viera da Silva, amongst others.68 Embedded in French
French Intellectuals,
37 Andre Deutsch, London, existentialism, which was still a living part of French politics, this
38 1964, p 112, pp 150–1, philosophy, and the artists and intellectuals who embraced it, were
pp 184–5. now clearly divorcing from the Communist Party following the Soviet
39
40 62. Jeremy Lewison, ‘Jackson invasion of Hungary in 1956.69 A deeper consideration of the
Pollock and the
41 Americanization of
relationship of French Tachiste and, no less importantly, Italian
42 Europe’, in Jackson Informale with existentialism is beyond the scope of this essay. Yet,
43 Pollock, New that the CIA saw gesture painting as suitable for an international, and
Approaches, ed. Museum
44 of Modern Art, New
above all, humanist painting emblematic of a political centre is
45 York, Abrams, New York, indicated by its hosting, through Fleischmann and McCray, of a dinner-
46 1999, p 220. cocktail party in Paris for predominantly Paris-based gesture painters,
47 63. Ibid. curators and critics, and UNESCO officials.70 Held on 17 January 1959
48 64. Jean Cassou, ‘Foreword’, – the night after Jackson Pollock and The New American Painting
49 in Jackson Pollock et la opened in Paris – what is clear from the guest list was that the
50 Nouvelle Peinture Americans were attempting to bring the ‘second School of Paris’ into
Américaine, Éditions des
51 Musées Nationaux, Paris, contact with UNESCO, which itself was only just embarking on a 10-
52 1959, unpaginated. year project to identify the cultural bases for a universally valid
113
1 65. Ibid.
humanism. Although UNESCO was willing to accept cultural
2 pluralism as inevitable, it was hoped that some shared values could be
66. Caute, op. cit., p 185;
3 Jachec, op. cit., p 202.
identified that could promote, through culture, human solidarity and
4 greater ‘democratisation’ across the globe.71
67. In Italy, this socialist
5 faction was the PSIU, and
6 in France the SFIO. See The American commitment to Abstract Expressionism as an Atlanticist
7 Byron Criddle, Socialists and potentially world aesthetic would end, however, as abruptly as it
and European
8 Integration, A Study of began once Kennedy took office in January 1961. For Kennedy’s
9 the French Socialist Party, presidency was marked by his confidence in the European union and
Routledge & Kegan Paul,
10
London, 1969, pp 83–90;
his concern with the non-Western world, particularly Asia, Africa and
11 Spencer Di Scala, op. cit., the Middle East. As Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr, Harvard historian, guru
12 pp 104–6, pp 110–16. of the postwar new liberalism, and special adviser to Kennedy,
13 68. Alfred Pacquement, reflected, Kennedy was unworried by European neutralism: ‘the third
14 ‘Confrontations world had now become the critical battleground between democracy
1950–1953’, in
15 Paris–New York
and communism. ... The battle for Europe … had been … essentially
16 1908–1968, Centre won by the end of the forties’.72
17 Georges While there were regular disagreements with de Gaulle over the
Pompidou/Gallimard,
18 Paris, 1991, p 647; Laure nature of European union, Kennedy’s administration was nonetheless
19 de Buzon-Vallet, ‘L’Ecole confident of the French president’s inability to derail it. As Robert
20 de Paris, éléments d’une Komer of the CIA noted to McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy’s chief foreign
enqûete’, in Paris–Paris
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51 JFK and Leo Castelli with Jasper Johns’s Flag, White House, 14 June 1963. Photograph courtesy of the John F Kennedy
52 Library, Boston, MA
115
21 September 1959, 1, pp
6–7; Bureau of Cultural
‘a less sinister connotation’.81 This could be achieved through overt
22 Affairs, 1956–60, General government sponsorship of shows promoting a consistent message.
23 Records of Department What followed was the reinterpretation of Abstract Expressionism in
of State, NACP.
24 uniquely American terms – pragmatic, and giving rise to a plurality of
25 80. Ibid, pp 42–3. recent innovations, and the rationale behind its redefinition was intonated
26 81. ACA, ‘Official Minutes in the Slater Report of Spring, 1961. This was the first of a ‘spate of expert
27 of the Ninth Meeting of reports’ produced by the State Department on the shortcomings of the
the Advisory Committee
28 on the Arts, September United States’ cultural relations programmes, that chided the USA for
29 12–13, 1960’, p 1; having ‘come late’ to the realisation that ‘educational and cultural
30 General Records of the activities are … a major instrument of foreign policy, to be joined with
ACA 1951–1962,
31 General Records of the political and economic activities in sustaining and directing the position
32 Department of State, of the United States in world affairs’.82 While it did not mention what
33 NACP. specific cultural products should be circulated, it did warn, however, that:
34 82. Preston et al., op. cit.,
35 104; J E Slater, ‘Basic … any hint of educational or cultural imperialism will strike as
36
Philosophy, Objectives deeply at the sensibilities of another country as a hint of political or
and Proposed Role of CU economic imperialism. We cannot transplant our education and our
37 Concerning U.S. Policies
culture; we can only display them honestly, make it possible for
and Programs in the
38 others to judge them fairly, and help others put them to use.83
Educational and Cultural
39 Fields during the 1960s’,
40 first draft, 26 March The report also advocated dismantling the approach taken by the
1961, p 1; Schlesinger
41 White House Files, JFK
USIA, which operated on either an individual country or regional basis,
42 Library. in favour of promoting a consistent representation of American culture
43 83. Ibid., 2.
on a global scale. Similarly, the Sprague Report, circulated in autumn
44 that year, reasserted the need for ‘multilateral’ as opposed to bilateral
84. Carleton Sprague Smith,
45 ‘A Survey of Multi-
exchanges, and to work with Western European aspirations for
46 National Cooperation cultivating democratic principles at home and across the globe.84
47 Made in Europe from The achievement of this independent cultural identity, however,
June 24 to September 2,
48 1961 for The Bureau of meant the curbing of the unattributed exhibitions. Within six months
49 Educational and Cultural of taking office Schlesinger and Kennedy were already drafting plans
50 Affairs, The US for bringing the CIA under the jurisdiction of the Department of
Department of State’, pp
51 2–3; Heckscher Papers, State.85 One of their first targets was the OCB, disbanded in February
52 JFK Library. 1961.86 Schlesinger saw these changes as morally necessary, as the
116
1 current activities of the CIA contravened the very notion of ‘a free and
2 85. Arthur M Schlesinger, Jr, open society’.87 Schlesinger was arguably the closest of Kennedy’s
3 ‘Memorandum for the advisers; they were in contact almost daily throughout the presidency,88
4 President, CIA and it was he who impressed upon the president the need to present the
Reorganization’, 30 June
5 1961; Schlesinger White United States as above all a pluralist society. In March 1962 he noted
6 House Files, JFK Library. to the president: ‘What we must do is both to emphasise the fact that
7 86. Jeffreys-Jones, op. cit., p our objective is a pluralist world and to rethink our international
8 121. relationships in these terms.’89 Concerning the extent to which his
9 87. Schlesinger, views would be expressed in the stylistically diverse government
10 ‘Memorandum for the exhibitions that travelled to Europe in 1962, it is likely that Schlesinger
President’, 30 June 1961.
11 played a key role in forming the ideological rubric under which they
12 88. Wolf von Eckhardt, were organised. Recently declassified documents outlining the special
‘Interview with August
13 Heckscher’, 10 December
interests of Kennedy’s White House staff identify Schlesinger as the
14 1965; Oral History only member with an interest in cultural exchanges. He is described as
15 Program, JFK Library. concerned with, amongst other things, ‘US image abroad – especially
16 89. Schlesinger, USIA, CIA and cultural relations’, and ‘Europe (Internal Affairs) –
17 ‘Memorandum for the especially’.90
President, Around the
18 World in 42 Days, March Pluralism certainly defined the USIA exhibitions Vanguard
19 5, 1962’, p 3; Presidential American Painting and ART: USA: NOW, which followed soon after
20 Office Files, JFK Library. the curtailing of covert operations. Under the direction of Edward
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21 90. National Security Murrow, whose approach was flexible and pragmatic, the USIA would
22 Council,’Memorandum restrict itself to the avant-garde, yet would self-consciously expand that
to the IL Staff, List of
23 Subjects of Interest to definition to include a far more diverse offering than Abstract
24 Staff’, 7 February 1962; Expressionism. 91 In January 1962 Murrow diplomatically relieved the
White House Files, JFK
25 Library.
IC of its sole responsibility for representing the United States in
26 Europe. While stating that IC exhibitions were of ‘excellent caliber’,
91. Jeffreys-Jones, op. cit., p
27 121; Elder, op. cit., p 39.
they were ‘selected with the specialized slant typical of MoMA’, which
28 was now drawing requests from cultural leaders abroad for a broader
92. Lois Bingham,
29 ‘Memorandum re
representation of American art.92 He therefore urged greater
30 Correspondence between coordination between the USIA and the IC. A more conciliatory letter
31 Mr. Murrow and Mr. was sent by Murrow to Barr three weeks later, explaining that the USIA
D’Harnoncourt, January
32 16, 1962’; Records of the was now ‘under pressure to shift its efforts from Europe to Africa, Asia
33 Office of the Director, and Latin America’,93 and he later noted that the programme with the
34 USIA, 1953–64, Records IC was not ‘sacrificed lightly’.94
of the USIA, NACP
35 Smithsonian Institution In 1963, the USIA issued its own guidelines concerning how art
36 Archives, Washington, should be chosen for circulation abroad, stipulating that the artists and
37 DC, SIA. works should ‘represent or reflect elements of life in the US of which
38 93. Edward Murrow, ‘Letter we are most proud’, and that ‘over-commitment to specific tastes –
to Alfred Barr’, 1
39 February 1962; Barr
whether traditional or avant-garde – is often open to misunderstanding
40 Papers, AAA, roll 2199. and criticism’.95 These guidelines, however, did not exclude private
41 94. Edward Murrow, ‘Letter
sector involvement, but simply brought it under the jurisdiction of the
42 to Alfred Barr’, 9 USIA, recommending that selections be left in the hands of ‘recognized
43 February 1962; Barr experts in the particular art form concerned’, who had ‘clear-cut
Papers, AAA, roll 2199.
44 instructions as to the purposes to be served by a given project and its
45 95. James A Donovan, ‘A desired scope and content’.96
Statement on the
46 Selection of American Art This new approach to representing the American avant-garde was
47 to Be Sent Abroad Under evident in Vanguard American Painting. Opening in Vienna in June
48 the Government’s 1961, and travelling to Salzburg, Belgrade, Madrid, Skopje, Zagreb,
International Cultural
49 Relations Programs’, Maribor, Ljubljana, Rijeka, Madrid, London and Darmstadt, the
50 c.1963, p 1, p 3; RU321, mission of this show was clearly to undo the identification of Abstract
SIA. Expressionism as an Atlantic style, redefining it as a pragmatic and
51
52 96. Ibid, p 3. uniquely American art form. Abstract Expressionism was well
117
21 Council, to All Council pragmatic approach, in which exhibits were planned to meet current
Members, March 1,
22 1962’, Barr Papers, political exigencies for specific locations, was a clear departure from
23 AAA, roll 2199. the broad, regional plan engineered by the OCB. It also embodied the
24 106.McCray, ‘Biographical values of the New Frontier, which were pragmatic and experimental by
25 Data’, op. cit., p 2, p 3. Kennedy’s own definition, and global in their progressivist vision.
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