American Modernist Art and Cold War Propaganda, 1950s

Introduction: Defining American Modernism

American modernism is perhaps one of the most difficult artistic periods to define. Modernism refers to a trend that affirms the power of human beings to create, shape, and improve their environment. Aided by technological advances, it is considered both progressive and optimistic in its approach to defining society. American modernism is understood as both an artistic and a cultural movement. It has its beginnings at the turn of the 20th century, reached its height during World War I and World War II, and continues even today.

Defining American modernism is only the first of many difficult tasks involved in the study of American expressionist painting and its influence on society. During the 1950s, American modernism took on new forms and a new role in society. Modern art was used as a form of propaganda to introduce American values and ideas into European society, and it played an important part in the ideological fight against communism. This role raises the question of whether art is a reflection or a shaper of society. In this case, its role is apparent: it was intentionally utilized in an attempt to shape society. However, when one looks beyond its intended purpose, the true aesthetic and artistic value it embodies helps one gain a better understanding of the cultural underpinnings of the Cold War era.

To look beyond the propagandistic purpose of American modernist art during the 1950s is to gain a broad view of the cultural values that permeated American society. This research explores the artistic and aesthetic values of American modernist art during the Cold War, focusing specifically on abstract expressionist painting. It examines the hypothesis that American expressionist art during the 1950s was more than a form of propaganda and that it possessed its own genuine aesthetic and artistic value, using case studies as the basis for exploring this claim.

Abstract expressionism is perhaps the most significant artistic movement of the post–World War II era. It was one of the first truly American art forms to spread beyond the American continent, and it transformed New York City into a major art center, arguably displacing the position previously held by Paris. Expressionism emphasizes subconscious rather than conscious creation and is diametrically opposed to the realist paintings of earlier eras. Dripping paint from a brush onto a canvas placed on the floor was a popular technique that helped define the essence of American expressionist painting.

The Role of Abstract Expressionism

Abstract expressionism is meant to convey emotional intensity. The degree of stylistic variation among contributing artists was significant, yet one unifying feature is a feeling of rebelliousness and a rejection of societal norms and standards. At a time when mass media sought to instill norms and order into a society that craved stability, American expressionism stood in opposition to the mainstream.

Many people confuse expressionism with abstract painting, but the two are quite different upon close examination. Abstract painting refers to an abstraction of reality — perhaps the best example being cubism, in which a recognizable object is transformed into something almost unrecognizable in its parts yet fully coherent in its final form. Expressionism lacks this element of real objects. Often there is no recognizable form in the work, and the piece exists in and of itself, with no connection to reality. Expressionism is the language of pure emotion, whereas abstract painting is a method for transforming reality.

When one views an expressionist painting, it tends to evoke a feeling rather than an image. Expressionist paintings may be described as feeling sad, light, airy, or joyful. Sometimes viewers perceive images that were never intended by the artist. The colors, shapes, and forms evoke archetypes that may differ for every individual who encounters the work. Not only is the artist an individual, but so is the viewer, and the interpretation of the painting depends not on the recognition of familiar objects but on the viewer's own experiences. This contrasts sharply with realist painting, where artist and viewer arrive at a shared understanding of what is depicted. In expressionism, no such agreement is required, and the viewer may have an entirely different interpretation than the artist intended. Expressionism is thus the essence of individualism, free from the constructs of formal society.

Expressionist paintings capture the feel and essence of a subject rather than a realistic rendering of it. They are considered avant-garde and on the fringes of conventional society. Abstract expressionism evolved through distinct stages of development, mirroring the transformation of society at the close of World War II — a slow but deliberate transition from earlier art forms.

The early works of abstract expressionists drew on strong imagery and primitive art forms for inspiration. Notable early figures included Rothko, Pollock, and Motherwell. Pictographs and distorted elements of human anatomy drew on Jungian psychology and its images of the collective unconscious. These works were organic rather than carefully planned. In a statement published in the New York Times, Gottlieb, Rothko, and Newman wrote:

"To us, art is an adventure into an unknown world of the imagination which is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense. There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing. We assert that the subject is critical." (Stella, 2004).

Key Artists and Representative Works

This statement perhaps summarizes the expressionist ethos better than any formal definition. The early works appeared from the early 20th century through the mid-1940s. No official boundary marks the transition from the early to the later phase of the movement; however, a new technique developed by Pollock in 1947 serves as a useful dividing line. Pollock's technique involved dripping and pouring thinned paint onto raw canvas laid on the floor — a method that became known as "gesture" painting. There was no fixed subject to this approach, and the resulting works were entirely open in their meaning, expressing the painter's emotion rather than depicting any particular object (Stella, 2004).

Pollock's gesture paintings were large in scale and considered shocking by many viewers. They always evoked a response. De Kooning developed his own version of gesture style, alternating between abstract work and iconic figurative images, and several other artists created their own distinctive approaches within the gesture idiom. Expressionism — rather than form — was the key distinguishing characteristic of the mature abstract expressionist movement. The style of execution became the artist's distinctive signature.

Color plays an important role in the work of many expressionist artists. Rothko, for instance, created large-format fields dominated by color. His paintings were intended to capture the sublime rather than the beautiful — not to calm or soothe, but to invoke tension and contemplation. Newman described his own reductionist style as:

"... freeing ourselves of the obsolete props of an outmoded and antiquated legend ... freeing ourselves from the impediments of memory, association, nostalgia, legend, and myth that have been the devices of Western European painting." (Stella, 2004).

Pollock worked with both scale and color to provide viewers with an almost religious experience. Rothko's work was said to draw tears from viewers as they contemplated it. One can compare Rothko's use of monumental scale to the overwhelming experience one feels inside a great cathedral. His works were not meant to be viewed from a distance so that the entirety of the composition could be absorbed at once; rather, they were meant to be experienced up close, so that the viewer could feel the enormity and grandeur of the canvas — to feel small in comparison to the vast universe the painting evoked.

Rothko's No. 13 (White, Red on Yellow) (1958) is an excellent example of his reductionist forms and his use of color to create dramatic impact. Upon first glance it appears to be a simple painting. However, these works were never meant to be viewed in passing. One is meant to sit and contemplate them, waiting to see whether an emotion arises. As the viewer continues to look, subtle qualities begin to emerge that are not apparent at first glance or from a distance. The top square is not white, but is composed of muted tones of grays and browns. The upper portion of that area is lighter than the lower, suggesting a light source emanating from the upper right corner. These elements give the seemingly simple composition an unexpected depth. The edges of the squares are not perfectly straight — they were painted by hand rather than ruled with tools, preserving a quality of human presence. The smaller colored squares are unequal and relate to each other in varying ways.

What initially appears to be a simple arrangement of three squares is, on closer inspection, genuinely complex. This is a compelling case for the value of American expressionism: casual observers may pass by without grasping the concepts embedded in the simplicity, while the attentive viewer discovers that the painting is contemplative and thought-provoking in ways that resist easy summary.

Pollock's Pasiphae (1943) is an example of the primitivism current within expressionist art. This work employs archetypes, mythological symbols, and imagery drawn from Freud and Jung, carrying a cave-painting quality — ancient, primitive, and timeless. The colors echo those found in nature: blood, stone, and earth. A few subtle hints of familiar shapes can be detected within the forms. At first the painting appears as a tangle with no recognizable pattern; however, as one continues to look, shapes begin to emerge — primitive human figures, animals — as the brain attempts to organize the complex lines and swirls into coherent forms. Every viewer is likely to have a different experience, shaped by their own emotions and life history. It would be difficult to offer a single authoritative interpretation, as one might with a realist painting.

De Kooning is another central figure of American expressionism. His Black Untitled (1948), executed in oil and enamel on paper mounted on wood, demonstrates his desire to show that black and white could be as expressive as color. High-contrast values create tension, and, like the works of Rothko and Pollock, the swirling forms invite individual interpretation as the viewer absorbs the composition.