Support for the arts was mostly overt in the post-war period. There was a ton of private and government money poured into the arts in those days simply to show how free the system was in contrast to the way the Soviets supposedly used art only for propaganda and suppressed all else. No matter how “useless” it appeared to be, or how much it angered conservatives, the pointlessness was the point. It was like a potlach display of a system so free it could afford to be frivolous. “As long as artists are at liberty to feel with high personal intensity, as long as our artists are free to create with sincerity and conviction, there will be healthy controversy and progress in art… How different it is in tyranny. When artists are made the slaves and the tools of the state; when artists become chief propagandists of a cause, progress is arrested and creation and genius are destroyed.” - President Eisenhower, Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, October 19, 1954.
https://youtu.be/bvCLi8pmak4?si=NLt9y2Gwzs_2yysm
Amiri Baraka on Charles Olsen. Baraka as sharp as ever.
oh thank you for this. Just wonderful.
Support for the arts was mostly overt in the post-war period. There was a ton of private and government money poured into the arts in those days simply to show how free the system was in contrast to the way the Soviets supposedly used art only for propaganda and suppressed all else. No matter how “useless” it appeared to be, or how much it angered conservatives, the pointlessness was the point. It was like a potlach display of a system so free it could afford to be frivolous. “As long as artists are at liberty to feel with high personal intensity, as long as our artists are free to create with sincerity and conviction, there will be healthy controversy and progress in art… How different it is in tyranny. When artists are made the slaves and the tools of the state; when artists become chief propagandists of a cause, progress is arrested and creation and genius are destroyed.” - President Eisenhower, Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, October 19, 1954.
Johan Eddebo’s introductory talk on the hazards of A.I. (one hour): https://youtu.be/55AtDbyqEFU?si=4VaXkmhnYik11k8q