After 20+ years, it was revealed in 1967 that the CIA had been covertly promoting Abstract Expressionism and funding the CCF.
Abstract Expressionism:
Cold War Propaganda to Combat Communism
Jackson Pollock, 1947, Lucifer
The Reveal
"London, May 9— The president of the General Assembly of the Congress for Cultural Freedom said today that the Paris-based organization had unknowingly received Central Intelligence Agency funds."
-New York Times, May 10, 1967
"What the scandal of 1967 at last brought to public attention was that for years (via the ostensibly unaffiliated Congress for Cultural Freedom) the CIA had been underwriting an elaborate international network of periodicals, pledged to fighting the ideological battle against communism and to expunging anti-American feeling. "
-Neil Berry
Encounter was one of the several magazines/journals across the world that the CIA covertly funded. Published in England, it was dedicated to interdependence between cultural achievement and political freedom. The magazine, launched in 1953, lost credibility after the 1967 reveal, leading to its eventual close, as it was known for its openness.
The covert CIA promotion of Abstract Expressionism shocked the public and intellectuals alike, revealing how apolitical art could be propagandised and weaponized during times of conflict, transforming what appeared to just be a creative movement into a powerful symbol of American freedom and influence.