Powerful rulers have long understood the power of art to convey messages to the masses – from the Roman statue of Augustus of Prima Porta, featuring a Cupid to suggest he was descended from the goddess Venus, to the Neoclassical painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps, to the art we covered in chapters 37 and 38 last week, art can be extremely powerful. Because of its power, entire governments have been known to confiscate and destroy art (the Nazi party in Germany, for example), while others have secretly funded the creation of certain types of art that promote favorable ideas (the United States in the years following World War II). Your task for this week\’s discussion board is to conduct brief internet research on the following topics:
The funding of Abstract Expressionist artists in the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Why did they do it? How did they do it? What artists were included that we have studied?
Another example of art as propaganda of your choosing from more recent (1970s to today) history.
Choose one of the topics to write about and include an artist to highlight who was affected by either one of the topics. Share one of the works by the artist that was involved in the story. Try to choose different artists/works than your classmates.
