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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1986)
Monday, August 25, 1986 Daily Nebraskan Book shows how changes in political climate after World War II influenced today's art, how radical art turned into the mainstream 3y Ken DiMaggio Staff Reporter "Well gee Wally - if they call this Jeribbling and stuff art then why iiui't I do if. post-war American life. Faced with the task of countering Soviet influence aft er World War 1 1, t he I'nited States had to impress Europe with its superior culture. The Holly wood movie was one weapon in Ameri ca's cultural arsenal. But because don't know. Beave. I guess it's because you're just a dumb little kid." France had a pre-war quota still limit- "Yeah Wally, I guess you're right." iBook Review For Loldoll the masses, art in this society .1 . ..I - i . i mi goes oeyoiui a beau 11 10 ficaver unoersianuniK. f For the critics and intellectuals who inly see art as an isolated apolitical jobject, they understand it even less than Theodore Cleaver. j In his book, "How New York Stole 'the Idea 01 Modern Art, rerge tiuii ,"haiit takes the first American school of !l i - . A ni.lil.llfl Alllilt ll'.ltllt llMillM a i I ; i nonce ADSiraci expressionism and documents how the violent drip pings and impasto of Jackson Pollack and Willem De Kooning became icons in the Cold War political warfare of the l!).")0s. In developing his thesis, Guilbaut reveals some interesting things about the American character. By World War II, the middle class began to cultivate an interest in art. You could buy an original Rembrandt or Rubens in Macy's New York depart ment store. Just like a car, sofa, or radio, you could buy an original master for only one-third of the price down, and pay the rest on credit, which of course included a service charge. Not to be outdone, Gimbels's sold their own Rembrandts, and that was how the "war of the Rembrandts" was begun. Gimbels offered Rembrandt's "Portrait of an Old Man," for $6,894, wiiile Macy's sold the same artist's "Portrait of a Child" for what could only be a true department store price of $9,999. But Guiibaut shows a darker side to ing the number of American films into its country, it was now forced into dropping this quota in order to receive American aid. The Blume-Byrnes ac cord, signed in li)4(i, forced the French to limit the number of their own films being shown in order to show more American films. High culture. was something else. Paris was still considered the art capital of the world. Paris was also influenced by and respectful of the Communists, who played an heroic role in the resistance. Jackson Pollack was the perfect artist to embody the new American art that would steal the crown from Paris and transplant it to New York. Pollack was both abstract and emotional. As an artist who shunned pictorial image there was little danger of political icon or symbol sneaking into his work. And the wild and violent emotions dis played by him in his frenzied drippings and impasto, focused on the individual caught in an hysterical, shaman-like dance. The social panorama that was displayed in earlier American canvases by Benton and Soyer was traded for the myth and ritual of Pollack, De Kooning and Rothko. Painting became a cele bration of the individual in the uncer tain Atomic age. And this philosophy fit with the aims of post-war U.S. for eign policy. And the success of Pollack in 1948 was, as Guilbaut writes, per fectly timed when America began to cultivate an image of the individual free from a totalitarian society. "Without really wanting to, the avant-garde lined up behind the ideology that had only recently become dominant. What the avant-garde did not realize was that the post-war world had caught up with their radical war- 1 ' i -I .477 IJUJ,UUJUUJLJiJJLlJ,LLJ.UIClJ 4 it I liill . " f nm ju tfitB H w , u time political stance. . . By 194S their once disturbing vision could be integrated into the uetc anti-Communist rhetoric. . ." Today it is hard to find evidence of an American art that is socially con scious and commited. There are excep tions, such as feminist art, but such movements rarely enter the mainstream unless they have been watered down. An establishment press could accept an angry Negro writer by the name of Lee Roi Jones, but not the cool Marxist writer he became as Amiri Baraka. Success in the American art world is, as Guilbaut points out, based on the depoliticalization of the artist, not the political awareness of the artist. Don't be a hcartbreakcr pressure checked. American Heart Association WEKl HGHTJGfOPVCXJRUF BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND m mi mum liter 'hi GOMWMHENT BAMOMG AT TODS STUDENT 1 ;-' 7. o TIME Located in the City Campus Student Union (lower level), Commercial Federal's CASHBOX left you withdraw cash and get balance inquiries right on campus, seven days a week during Student Union hours. 2L 15 DISCOUNT AT L9J b SERVICE o CONVE Jn additionto GASHBOX right drr campus, ''Commercial Federal offers you a network of conveniently located branches and Automated Teller Machines statewide. Deposits can be made to your account at Commercial Federal offices and other Cashboxes throughout Nebraska or you can use our convenient bank by mail service. To help introduce you to the convenience of CASHBOX, just use it four times between August 25 and October 31, 1986 (excluding balance inquiries), and we'll send you a coupon good for 15 percent off at the University Bookstore. Commercial Federal offers the financial services you need: No minimum balance checking. Student loans. VISAMasterCard. Use your Commercial Federal CASH CARD at over 1 1,000 Auto matic Teller Machines coast-to-coast displaying these symbols: Coupon excludes textbooks, magazines, and computer shop. NATION ET SHAZAM ffl rrm J U 1 Scavings and Loan To open an account, step by our office ai 13th and uO" Street. (473-0707) Page 21 . F n n 2 i