And if we still want to beat a dead horse, it's generally considered that the rise of abstract art after WWII was a reaction to the unprecedented chaos and destruction brought by modern war, coupled with collapse of conventional ideas of right and wrong and a well-ordered universe.
Like in each of America's Wars in the Last Century, the men and women most affected found their social norms upside down and sideways, with dissenting voices coming from within their own relatively closed peer system, as well as families, and generally Left of Center educators, and religious leaders.
This condition caused otherwise once contented folks, young and old to catch, at first, bits and pieces, including shadows, which they had previously ignored or filtered out, to become more and more visible and attention worthy, even if it was simply to denounce what they now saw and read and heard.
How could they no find that their sense of being, especially those whom fought the war, first hand, (or hand-to-hand for that matter) that they were left out of center, socially, politically, with the Leadership they may have grown up trusting, the excesses of modern living, their priest, rabbi, imam, etc,
The Ivy League fellows at the CIA, post WWII, must have seen this, it was impossible to ignore and they had grown up witnessing the tidal wave of misplaced persons, starting with the returned hero's of WWI, and the Second World war and Korea, saw the abundance of new ideas in New York, especially and turned what could have become a Balkanized American Society, and gave it an creative outlet for expression and working through points of view, on any topic you might care to discuss, with artist leading the way, searching endlessly in each of their movements, and attempts to expand the vocabulary and materials of art, including the question of the ages, what is art?
The CIA Program(s?) simply gave a direction for all this angst to snowball, into a troublesome dynamic, for most of the World, including the intolerant enemy beneath the Red Flags of Communism.
IMO.
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