"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."

An absolutely fascinating article on Cold War era abstract expressionism from The Independent.

"We wanted to unite all the people who were writers, who were musicians, who were artists, to demonstrate that the West and the United States was devoted to freedom of expression and to intellectual achievement, without any rigid barriers as to what you must write, and what you must say, and what you must do, and what you must paint, which was what was going on in the Soviet Union. I think it was the most important division that the agency had, and I think that it played an enormous role in the Cold War." - Tom Braden, first chief of the CIA's International Organisations Division

The article does go on to make clear that the Abstract Expressionists were not instructed to paint in certain ways, or in any other way were told what to do, but it's tremendously interesting the lengths the CIA went to to show the rest of the world the breadth of freedom in America, while manipulating it all the time.

Worth a read.