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For decades in art circles it was either a rumour or a joke, but now it is confirmed as a fact. The Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art - including the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko - as a weapon in the Cold War. In the manner of a Renaissance prince - except that it acted secretly - the CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the world for more than 20 years.
The connection is improbable. This was a period, in the 1950s and 1960s, when the great majority of Americans disliked or even despised modern art — President Truman summed up the popular view when he said: "If that's art, then I'm a Hottentot." As for the artists themselves, many were ex-communists barely acceptable in the America of the McCarthyite era, and certainly not the sort of people normally likely to receive US government backing.
Why did the CIA support them? Because in the propaganda war with the Soviet Union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the US. Russian art, strapped into the communist ideological straitjacket, could not compete.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday November 01 2015, @10:43PM
The Wiki also says the reporting was done on some protest for the UN recognition of China. It certainly helps that Yeh makes such a nice impression in the picture that has to go with these articles. Which - if the reporting was supposed to be music-focused - doesn't do her much justice, because she plays really well.
Such a wide media coverage would never be done for "pretty asian girl plays heavy bass" alone. Or we'd have (much deserved) articles on Ritsuko Taneda of Shonen Knife, too :)