Introduce tonights speaker Matthew Algeo mathews latest book. When harry met pablo truman, picasso and the cold war politics of modern art will be released tonight here at the truman library. Matthew is an associate producer for National Public radio, and he has reported from four continents from four npr news and other outlets. He is the of six other books, including one of my favorites, Harry Trumans adventure the true story, a Great American road trip, which was named one of the best books of 2009 by the washington post. In addition to reporting and writing, matthew has held jobs as a Convenience Store clerk. Gas station attendant, Halloween Costume salesman and a hot dog vendor in a traveling circus. Even hes a vegetarian. He holds a degree folklore from the university of pennsylvania. In his bio, he modestly says, im an Award Winning journalist and author, but so is practically every other journalist and author author. Please join me in welcoming Matthew Algeo. Thank you. Kelly. So all good bits were there. Took most my shtick. Make. Im actually going to take this out for a little bit. I really need to thank kelly azalea. Kurt at the truman library. Not just for tonight, but for all the help theyve given me in writing this book and in writing the earlier book, Harry Trumans excellent adventure. Its its a joy to work in space here and with these people here. So i just want to say i cant i cant them enough in the book actually the last book i did was called all this marvelous potential about Robert Kennedys 1968 tour of appalachia. And that book was released in march 2020, and then a Global Pandemic occurred. So fingers crossed, two weeks we will not have another bubble. I dont i dont think. It was my fault. Exactly i, i learned about the straight been very fortunate. My my my wife has a real job. And so im very fortunate to be able to write these books a lot of the time. My wife is a Foreign Service officer and, so we were overseas a lot. And so its difficult sometimes. But the people at the library here have always very helpful in emailing files, making things available. Me and i really appreciate that. So most of this was written while we were in sarajevo. So the capital of bosnia and we just found out our next assignment we will be going to botswana. Does anybody know the capital of botswana. Gaborone. Yes. Give him a free book, not mine. Somebody elses. You know. All right what i. I am very happy about that. So im not going to ask any more geography questions tonight. Think weve got that covered. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, were doing all the bees. Yeah. William rock hill nelson. Okay, but you guys know who . William rock hill. Nelson is, right . Well, he opened the first art gallery in kansas city. And what happened was nelson went on a trip to the to europe do one of these grand tours in the 1890s and he bought lot of reproductions of works of the old masters to bring back to kansas city and open a gallery. Well, harry truman, you know, when he was growing in kansas city, there really was no art gallery here to speak of. And so this was nelsons attempt to to bring some kind of art museum to kansas city. Well, here, ill show you these the kinds of pictures that that he brought back. Now, this is a reproduction of dont me say his name, bartholomaeus van der hulst. But these are the kinds of pictures that william rock bill nelson broughtfor e nelson gallery, which was a two rooms on the second floor of the public library. And this, i believe, was harry first exposure to art was pictures like this. Theyre very realistic, right . I mean, you can really i mean, you can almost feel the breath when youre up close to them. And this is ginormous. Its like 12 feet across. So the nelson gallery was the first for ray that kansas city had into art and, really. I think the First Experience harry truman with art. You know, harry hated modern art. He it. But i think of the reason was he just never really had any exposure to it because this was the prevailing the prevailing art at the time. It really was this way everywhere in the United States at the time. Museums displayed old masters that was realistic that adhere to the long principles of perspective everything was exactly lifelike almost a photographic reproduction of a of what life is like now america in the early 20th century was finally awakening to some of the trends that were occurring in europe. And in 1905 Alfred Stieglitz he was a photographer in new york, and he opened a famous gallery there called 291, and he a friend, marios tiresias, now a stieglitz, that photographers should be exposed to trends in modern art. He saw photography a kind of art in itself. Now theres, a kind of ironic twist here, because while youll see visual art, painting getting less realistic and more abstract art photography going the other way, its becoming more lifelike. Its taking pictures of imposed pictures of people in real life but in seem in way theyre kind of traveling the same the same road. Marios desire was stieglitzs friends, he said. He said the autumn salon is occurring in france in 1910. You should go find some pictures that we can show here at the gallery new york. So zayas goes to goes to paris. And he sees the work of a spanish word. He forgets his name, but he writes a letter back to stieglitz and says, theres a spaniard here who has some interesting. And stieglitz well, you should go meet him. And marios desire and picasso both spoke spanish. And so they started up a friendship and a desire convinced picasso to lend some of his for an exhibit at the 291 gallery. And here, ill show you one. This. One of the pictures that caused the most consternation when this when this exhibition opened at 291, standing female nude is a early example of picassos cubism. I just need to read of what heres what the art critic of the new york globes any sane critic. I dont know why use that voice and. Hes saying criticism is entirely out of the question. Any serious would be in vain. The results suggest the most violent words an asylum. So he was not digging it at all. Of course, controversy like that, you know, its one of the one of the times where bad reviews led to good attendance. Right. Theres no such thing as bad publicity. So the crowds for these these shows that he had the show, he had it to one were enormous. But at the end of the day, the drawings were price as low as 12, by the way. You get a picasso for 12. But two were sold and stieglitz himself, he bought standing nude for 65 and then hung it over his fireplace. So it took a little while for for modern art to catch on. In fact, it was another years before the first major the exhibit of modern art occurred in the u. S. This was in february, march 1913 at the 69th infantry armory, new york. Its known as the armory show. It gathered 1200 works by leading european artist duchamp, but his picasso, as well as a few americans. And this show became very famous because i will show you another nude. Dont have to cover your eyes. I think he kind of stole that from picasso. But duchamp named nude descending a staircase number two. Now, everybody everybody was trying to figure out where is the nude in that. And i have some of the guesses really good. That tender to sorry i did everything. Yes i like this. The New York Times described it as an explosion, a shingle mill. Others described it as undress to lumber, a pack, cards in a cyclone, a riot in a lumber yard, an omaha. After a big wind, a pile of disused golf clubs, an assortment of half made leather, an elevated railway in ruins after, an earthquake and a dynamited of japanese armor. So everybody wanted to know where is the nude in that. And again this this controversy really interest in modern art, in the united. What i found was interesting was there was actually a review of the armory show in the kansas city star. They had freelancer in york who wrote a review. And it was not very it was not very positive. He said youve heard of the cubists. Theyre the frenchmen who draw a hexagon and say, isnt it a beautiful circle . And he said, new york laughing at them. Nobody takes them seriously. And really, this was kind of writing that i think in harrys opinion of art, and it was really the prevailing attitude, the time. You know, these these these funny pictures and even a five year old kid could draw them. Ill show you the next slide just to show this was i off on it . That really shows you how it sort of became a meme. You before we had the word. So the reviews the armory show were were great and i theres a lot that happens in the twenties and thirties course but moving ahead that the museum of modern art is founded in 1929 and then of course the depression and World War Two intervened and really had negative effect on the production of art for obvious reasons. And its really after the second world war. And of course, harrys president , now that cultural diplomacy became, a catch phrase that america was seen as a country that you know was more concerned with money than art, you know, more concerned with pennies than poems, that sort of thing. And so there was a diplomat at the state department, leroy davidson, and he decided going to put together the most modern works that we can, and were going to take them abroad and were going to show people what freedom of expression means. And this would be in stark contrast to the prevailing art in the soviet union at the time, which course was soviet realism, you know, the heroic depictions of the workers sort of thing. So davidson he he bought 117 oils and watercolors by american artists. There were two things that were unusual and ultimately controversial about the show. He called the show advancing american art and the state department bought the pictures. Now, this is unusual usually the pictures would be loaned, but he he argued that it would be much easier to stage a longer exhibition and, have the government assume the costs of insurance and, shipping and everything to just buy the pictures. The other unusual thing is there was jury. Davidson himself picked the pictures. He was afraid if there was a jury that they would default to the safest works and did not want this to be a safe show. The the show cost 50,000 for the for the pictures which was a pretty good amount of money at the time. Ill show you there. Iss the this is one of the pictures from the show, which is really came to symbolize the ow. Yasukuni yoshi circus girl, wresting, resting. Well, there were other things going on in the world politically at the time. One was that republicans were taking control of congress back and they were looking to cut funding for the state department. And this this really became a political football look magazine published an article titled your money these paintings and published of the paintings, including circus resting here. There is a congressman carl said no wonder foreigners think are crazy. He was the chair of the house subcommittee that funded the state department the way so his opinion mattered. He said he had received a lot of mail from constitu ions indignant about the exhibit, he quoted one correspondent who said the circus girl looked like a Chicago Bears tackle, taking it easy during a time out. Stephan said his constituents objected to, quote, any inference that the typical American Girl is better equipped to move a piano than to play one. So this actually reached up to the upper levels of the state department. Secretary marshall and even harry truman was forced to comment on it. And harry, at a press conference, somebody showed him, the look magazine articles, and he pointed to this picture and said, this is what i mean by ham and eggs. Art said, ive been to a million circus and ive never a performer who looked like her. So this became a political problem for for harry. So the show opened to very positive views in prague. It forced the soviet union to put on its competing show. It was very well wellreceived, but ultimately the political implications were too much. And secretary marshall, the show had the pictures shipped back to the United States. He told congress, as far future circus ladies go, that is a closed shop. So the pictures came back to the u. S. They were sold as government surplus and Financial Institute are not Financial Institutions educational institutions. Colleges and universities under the under the rules of the auction were entitled a 90 discount on the winning. So circus girl went to auburn university. For 100. Georgia okeeffe was sold for 50. So all of these pictures were sold for a fraction of of what they were actually worth, which is which is a shame. I just want to tell im going to go to the next slide. I wanted to show the artist here, yasuo kuniyoshi, who who painted . The picture circus girl resting. And a little sidebar in the book is his story which i found really interesting so he was born in japan in 1889, when he was six years old, he moved to the United States. He wanted to learn english and, then go back to japan and be translator. But he ended up in los angeles. He attended a public. His teacher saw him drawing, said, youre really good. You should, you know, take some classes. He took art classes in los angeles and then moved to new york and began his career as an artist. And he was very successful artist. He was one of the four american chosen to one four artists chosen to represent the United States at the 1952 venice biennale. And he he was one of the first artists to have a have a show at moma. He was included in the first show of american artists at moma during World War Two. He was declared an enemy alien. So the the, the way citizenship laws worked at the time, only a free white, free white people and people of african descent were eligible to become citizens. So japanese people, people born in japan, not eligible to become United States citizens. So he he volunteered for the War Department during World War Two. Helped, right japanese propaganda radio, broadcast posters, etc. In 1952, the immigration act of 1952 finally lifted race based restrictions. It went into effect in late 1952. The immediate immediately applied for citizenship. But he died three months later, before his application could be approved. So he died stateless. I should also his wife, when he was married. In 1932, i believe his wife lost her american citizenship because a woman who married a man who was not eligible for american lost her citizenship. So his wife was stateless as well. I i really think it would be cocongress would give kuniyoshi a posthumous citizenship, and it would also, you know, symbolically represent, all the people who were born in japan were not allowed to become american citizens, not to go too far down that rabbit hole, but its really fascinating reading the the cases. There was a japanese born man who went to stanford and then applied for american citizenship and went to the judge. You know, when the application he appealed the denial the application and went to the judge and said, look, my skins whiter, yours. The judge said, wait, thats not how we do it. Thats not how we do it. And so it went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court decided unanimously that no, its not based on the color of your skin, based on the race that is as it is generally. And the guy who wrote the majority or the unanimous was a naturalized. He was born in the morning. Anyway, its a really interesting sort of sidebar to the story. And one of the things i love about doing these books is you find these fascinating stories that kind of get lost to history. And also one of the neat things about doing these little slice of life stories, you know, i mean really were talking about a day harry truman spent with Pablo Picasso that in and of itself is not that fascinating to him. But the back story, i think, is fascinating and, you know, the reasons that came about why happened, those sorts of things. Im going to go to the next slide and show you this is harrys kind of art at the time. The whole advancing american art controversy going on. Truman ahead and spent. I think there was like 10,000 to buy this painting. The white house and, that is is a charlie ross yeah his press secretary pointing it out. Its called the peacemakers by George Alexander healey. And it shows sherman, grant, lincoln and david porter. And this, i thought was interesting that in the midst of the controversy, a circus girl resting. Truman bought this picture for the white house. So its definitely of where he was coming. Now, i have to say, harry, despite his dislike, modern art. He was not in favor of censoring modern art or, you know, cutting funding to museums. There was a movement in the United States, especially in the house of representatives in the 1950s, led by a congressman, michigan george, don darrow, who for some reason had a bitter opposition to modern art. And a lot of people on the right at the Time Associated modern art with communal some a lot of the people who were modern artists, you know, had funny sounding names. So they were immediately suspect and really, i think they saw or they said they saw modern art as a way to sort of, you know, a trojan horse for the communal to infiltrate American Culture in american society. And so there was this really throughout the fifties, kind of a backlash against modern art . Truman didnt like modern art, but he saw modern art had value. And i think he also appreciated the propaganda value of modern art abroad, but i dont think he fought for it in advancing american art because he just it was, boy, this had a lot on its table, right. You know 1946 1947. Marshall plan rebuilding in europe. This was not a fight that harry wanted fight. But i really think he believed that there was a value in modern art. And its interesting note that the cia in 1950 started a program they had a front the Congress Congress of cu