Heavy Artillery: Ab Ex-travaganza at the MoMA

When the Cold War ran red hot, the United States government reached for any weapon available against the “Red Menace.” It’s hard to believe today, when federal funding for the arts is so tight, but in the 1950s the powers that be used art to fight the ideological war against Communism. Looking for a way to prove that America truly stood for freedom, the American government hauled out the heavy artillery of Abstract Expressionism, the art movement that made New York City the epicenter of the global art scene. Abstract Expressionist New York, currently at the MoMA, taps into the power of that freedom to remind us of a time when art seriously mattered. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Heavy Artillery."

[Image: Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956). The She-Wolf. 1943. Oil, gouache, and plaster on canvas. 41 7/8 x 67" (106.4 x 170.2 cm). Purchase. © 2010 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.]

[Many thanks to the MoMA for providing me with the image above and other materials for Abstract Expressionist New York, which runs through April 25, 2011.]