Transcripts For CSPAN3 Cold War Modernists 20151031 : vimars

In 1995. It is a thrill to return here. In many ways, my book actually got its start in this building. I dont way dont mean in the usual grad student labor this is where he started doing research. Iname to New York University 1993 as a naive guy. I have barely been out of oregon. I didnt know anything about new york city. I had resolved to pay my own way in the city without any family help. I got a workstudy job in the reserve room in the basement. I quickly learned that a 10 hour does wasntjob what going to pay Living Expenses in new york city. Even at a cheaper time, it wasnt cheap. I had to quit my workstudy job and got a full time job in publishing at harpercollins. I took classes at night. Hereofit professors were fantastic. When i was learning by working in publishing was even more listening interesting. When i transferred to the university of texas to do my doctorate, my project centered on publishing related questions that had arisen for me when i was working on 53rd street for rupert murdoch. Those questions that i became interested in which are about how the institution that creates and disseminates and mediates a reception of literature and art how do they do that . What is the effect . What is the mechanism by which that works . Those are the questions i have been interested in in all of my scholarly work your that is what this book is about. Betters probably no place in the world to talk about modernism in the arts than new york city. What is modernism . How many of you those of you who are nyu students, how many of you are in the english or literature programs . Some of you the rest of your history background, cold war studies . Those of you who are steeped in this, forgive me. What is modernism . Is it a sleek glass box such as the seagrams building on park avenue . Abstract expressionist paintings like autumn rhythm . At the museum of modern art . Or is it the tales of 1920s manhattan in the novels of escott pfister of and henry ross F Scott Fitzgerald . Picasso the kosovo and many others to lexington avenue . These are all undeniably modernist. What is the dna that they share . What makes and made audiences recognize them as modernists . Namenism didnt go by that until well into the 50s. Pornography,rts early 20th century audiences new modernism when they side, even if he didnt have a fixed cultural or political meaning. The widely disparate Modernist Movement and little in common beside formal extremities and the rejection of formal methods of the present in reality. They also shared a rebellion against all existing standards and institutions and a relentless pursuit of the new for its own sake. Audiences saw in modernism a fundamentally antinomian attitude. Irving howell called it an unyielding rage against the existing order. And unrelenting drive to reject, breakdown, top out in search of a new. If modernism wanted to undermine it middle Caste Society middleclass society, it was a failure. If anything, it came not to bury but to adorn no class life, colonizing its houses and products and entertainment. From a modernism has become a style. What happened . Edit modernism move from being a cause to a style . How do modernism move from being a cause to a style . It retained its association with innovation and the drive for the new, modernism also became and came to be ,resented as a profreedom m movement. We can think about the publishing industry, mass media, arts and cultural foundation, museums, the theater world, and others. The cold war imperative accelerated this development. In fact, modernism became a weapon in the socalled cultural cold war. If battles ranged from heated exchanges from International Conferences todueling theatrical productions. War for theof this sympathies of influential western european leftist intellectuals which reviled the u. S. Shallow, dominated culture. Very of stalinist dictatorship and military and is ianism. In military and is was suggested as it proved that western culture was superior to the culture being forced in the soviet union. I call these 1940s and 1950s program huge modernism and propaganda and reinterpretation of modernism itself. Itself,t the actual art it is the program that disseminated it in the intellectual framework and taught people how to reread what modernism really meant. And itnded across arts took place in magazines, touring exhibitions, film, and radio. Today, i am want to talk about cold war modernism and governmental manifestations and for private groups and people ,ike publisher James Lackland the museum of modern art and its director and its president nelson rockefeller. The father of medium. Onservatism they were all unified, and they were all different people, but they were unified by the consensus around anticommunism. Writers and government bureaucrats and business executives, they did not need to discuss with a belief. Liberal anticommunism was a based plan. The official cold war modernist project did not start out all that well. State6, the department of , if youroy davidson , that very same latrine is still there looking the same way. [laughter] it is a wonderful art museum. They hired david sent to amass a collection of art they would circulate around european capital. He purchased 79 Oil Paintings from painters such as jack levine, author dean, modernist painting iny were abstracted form. Several of these artists agree to sell their paintings at a discount. Two for 1000 even though her paintings were worth 10,000 apiece. It was a pretty good deal. The idea was to prove to european intellectuals that, contrary to their prejudices, the united dates have advanced culture and a sophisticated art scene, and american individualism was the soil in which innovative art group. We were not just chewing gum in cowboy movies. In many country overseas in overseas, it is a misconception that our artists have no individualism. This exhibit that davidson put together, illustrate the freedom in which our american artists exhibited. Andt together these memos , it was ato congress way to differentiate them. In addition, the exhibition stressedor this show the melting pot image of american culture, calling to the attention that many of the artists were immigrants whose creative expressions flowered under american freedom. The state department had not anticipated the fact that a lot of americans were not all fond of modernism. Attack,r started the brought the show to the notice of congress. They were considered a travesty upon art. They questioned the cultural value of any exhibition that was so strongly marked with the modernism of european art not native to our soil. Ridiculed said it, these paintings were not american at all, but they were booted in the alien cultures sicknesses of your. It began to sway the diplomatic establishment. Internally, he complained to davidson that davidson should have brought several types that would appeal to everybody. President truman made a snide remark about a painting and no merit atthere is all to modernism. It was not only snide, but racist. Davidsons are specialist position was eliminated and the paintings were sold off at a 90 discounts. By there purchased university of oklahoma, and they are there now. It as they had, they are still there now. I think it is up in auburn right now. Infuriated the cultural establishments. The art world insisted modernism was either communistic or fundamentally foreign. We reject the assumption that art must be socially or subversive, or unamerican. Barr, the main curator of the museum of modern art, wrote in 1953, that modern art was characterized as a love of freedom. And could be in no way unamerican. Rockefeller may have been stretching, but he was not entirely wrong. Some of the art were present in corporate collections such as ibm, pepsicola, etc. It predated the 1940s. Container corporation of america from 1937 used very challenging modernist art in his magazine articles. Really great website that has collected all of these ads and some of them are really great. Ftse 100 on to find the aspen festival, which is like a summer camp. Pepsi went on to find the aspen festival, which is like a summer camp. Of freedomeas individualism for creating a great art scene and that american businesses were not inherently guilty. Modernist art crept back into our cultural diplomacy often in the sky. The 1951 in still occupied this is a picture of the guy head of the main occupation force. The election of dwight , who his usually seen as being far from an intellectual, really accelerated the cold war modernist program. Eisenhower convened Highlevel Task forces on cultural diplomacy from the time he went into office. He created the United States Information Agency in 1953 to coordinate program settled by the state. Braver over grew the years. It was meant to complement the melbourne olympics. It previewed in dallas in 1955. If you know anything about dallas, it is a highly conservative city. It was an odd choice to preview modernist art. A local group objected to the inclusion of artist and nonrepresentational work. He ignored the complaints about the artwork. What is different about this episode than the previous one, it wasnt modernism that was a problem, it was the modernists. Technique such as extraction, distortion, in itself, a reason to pull work. Congress got up to attack the u. S. For its conservatism. Freedom of theut arts is one of the pillars in our land. It was very telling that he gave a speech at the 25th anniversary of modern art where he really emphasized enough of the arts being key american values. In governmentsponsored shows throughout the rest of the ds 1950, this trend continued. Ae world fair was held in modernist building. It went a bit far for eisenhower who said there is a place for the modernist school, but the fair is probably not the best place. Changes, heemanding allowed the show to go on as originally designed. Eisenhower was an amateur painter. The 1959 American Exposition in moscow provided that the new for a show of 48 Young American painters including many of the names that had caused most of the trouble for the arts program over the last 12 years. Everybody involved played their assigned parts. Pennsylvania representative asserted that the show included 22 artist involved with the communist movement. Technicaled to the driven array in the exhibition. Has been the case throughout the 50s, they spoke of in support of the show. Unlike 9055 sport and art, they did not demand prior approval and in the end, refused to reverse the show. Modernism went from being eliteent in 1946 to be with the modernist and the tell the soviet people who we were as a culture. There was an interesting article in the Atlantic Monthly quit after the show premiered by the man who curated the show talking about how the soviet people would come back and ask questions again and again. They were actually really interested in what was going on. Things worked a little differently in the Books Program , which became an Urgent Program at the cold war began. The soviets had exported their ideas through subsequent books. By the 1950s, they had distributed over 40 million books abroad. Four years later, they were producing 40 million books a year in free world like witches. N 1952, th during the cold war, the United States made books available to warn audience is in most ways. Taste exportket initiative called the informational meeting guarantee program and then through a government directed program to publish american books in foreign markets. They had several ways of getting books to audiences abroad. The intended audience was decidedly the intellectual elite that was judged by the directors to be an important target because new thoughts cannot be brought to the masses without the elite. They counter the charge that the u. S. Was a cultural wasteland. Of all the branches above cold war modernist program, the program was the most conservative than the most tentative and how it used modernism. Attitude totive american modernism made it particularly striking that the author play the biggest part, and in fact contributed to the program, was william faulkner. Is a tour is a difficult and highlight the one topic that the United States Information Agency most wanted to avoid the racial situation in the south. Address belted nailed it with his address. Stave few people could off the threat of destruction. Abroad among foreign writers made him a very powerful, cultural ambassador. 1950, his reputation was just starting to get better. One of the books said that all of these novels are one world and it was really important in rebuilding faulkner tatian. Reputation. Reluctant atas first and didnt want to go to stockholm to collect his nobel prize. Here is a picture of him getting on the plane. He would travel abroad recurrently. He would travel abroad frequently. When he told he got the nobel prize, he said, that is wonderful. They wanted him to come to stockholm to collect his prize, he said, the farm will not take care of itself or it we got work to do down here. Womany, they had to get a she was a state department to the and married governor of puerto rico, and her great grand pappy served in the civil war together, and she went. If you have ever been to roanoke in oxford, mississippi, there is a little bit of land, it is not a fun, it is in the middle of town. It sounds and he had about 500 acres. Trip was for the International Writers conference. The publicity circulated to the Public Affairs office. They also sent over two Public Affairs officers. Knowing the brazilian public would be focused on the interest in rape, they included a transcript of all caps off story bear and the notes about how you should use it. It is an important item sense negron, speaking as a novelist, spoke to the worst of the work. So he cant be a racist because the black guy like him. In pressnses conferences delighted the United States Information Agency. In all of his discussions, the on he unflinchingly answered questions about his style, work, and american life. About radicalism and defending democracy is the best system devised by man. Si even made a movie about faulkners japan trip. If you go to the national archives, you can watch it if you know how to threat an old movie. It is really interesting. They would show it across japan after he left. Faulkners travels were not over. That is a picture of him getting a press conference in paris in 1955. Home from japan, he got to rome, the till murder happened. It was really international news. He was giving a press conference and they asked him what you think . It happened 50 miles from your hometown. He said what they wanted him to say which is, it is a terrible crime. Faulkners travels prove that the u. S. Had produced legitimate cultural achievement and that modernism was not a rejection, but fmi it success of leftist liberal democracy. His involvement helped the project to bolster prestige and from one audience to an important audience in the 1960s of latin america, the middle east, and east asia. In fact, american modernist writers, artists, and performers help legitimize culture abroad degree that one officer pointed out the audiences. F foreign audiencescold war were opinion makers, diplomats knew they had to reach a broader audience. To do this, they used the most powerful media of the time radio. Insisted that radio was the Principal Media of the common cold or carrying the entire burden. , which was broadcast around the world, featured little coverage of art and culture am a because it was aimed at such a broad audience and conveyed a highly american, middle ground and stability about our voa asure, we can see what close thed the deal. Artist,eatures on art, writers, critics, and key ideas about american culture, was of america founded the themes of cold war modernism. It didat the truly so as to the voice of america. It expressed in the style and voice of american commercial broadcast journalism. It very much sounded like what you would your on cbs radio. It did not sound propaganda. Voice of Americas Mission was to provide that differentiated itself from radio liberty. Operations intended to be propaganda and were friendly so. Was of america was posted be like was of america was supposed to be like bbc. The bc as a model so audiences would not dismiss it as propaganda, would have an likely. Is was to avoid seeming like your propagandizing. During the truman administration, voice of america at go the argument that Ethnic Diversity characterized the u. S. Cultural scene. It stressed that the u. S. Is still a melting pot, but they showed contemporary art is not national but universal. It could even be belittling at times. , the artists who were described as three of the better american modernist, praise the regionalist condition and the variety it has brought to american art. Are much more orderly and rational than the layman give them credit for being. Of course, there is a persistent attitude that modernism are unpredictable, bohemian, countered by the notion that some of them are not. Coverage of all the arts increased after 1953. George allen reported to congress in 1958 that the agency was placing more emphasis on american arts. Toonew program cannot be daring or avantgarde. The content had to appeal to a broad audience in each target nation. Intellectuals and also a popular ience, who prepared preferred portraits of daily life. This is to be expected. Painting does not make good radio. They thrived in the United States and were accessible to an popular among our citizens ands art lively discussions among an engaged populist. The idea that the individual is the ultimate source of creativity permeated the cold war modernist project. Haitis andlett yes is more individualistic than it was. Artists have any freedom of his action and gained a new creative role. Hours,uralistic part of is the appropriate expression of a Democratic Society offering whites go to individuals. Really brought up explicitly is artists and writers in the soviet union were prescribed content and how they write, and, pose. Bigotry faulkner as a humanist and realist. It had been cleared by the 19 or his workkners was deeply rooted in a huma