Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1 — Attraction in Taipei

Taipei Dangdai is an affiliated partner of The Art Assembly (Taipei Dangdai, ART SG and Tokyo Gendai), a joint initiative by three British art fair organisers: Sandy Angus, Tim Etchells and Magnus Renfrew.

Abstract Expressionism (AE) During the Cultural Cold War, modern art was mobilised to ‘educate, [inspire] and strengthen the hearts and wills of free men’ (Levine 2020: para. 5). ‘Art was, thus, simply another instrument of foreign policy to be used to national advantage, and this view of its diplomatic cash value was not far removed from what Europeans frankly referred to as ‘cultural propaganda’ (Ninkovich 1977: 233).

To counter the appeal and growth of communism (particularly in France and Italy), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) exerted influence via front groups and philanthropic organs (Petras 1999). In 1950, the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was established in Paris to ‘propagate the virtues of western democratic culture’ (Levine 2020: para. 20). Several exhibitions on AE were curated during the 1950s: The New American Painting (1958-59), Modern Art in the United States (1955-56) and Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century (1952) (Saunders 1995). The MoMA show from 1956 called ‘Modern Art in the U.S.’ included works by 12 Abstract Expressionists: Baziotes, Gorky, Guston, Hartigan, de Kooning, Kline, Motherwell, Pollock, Rothko, Stamos, Still, and Tomlin and toured eight European cities (Cockcroft 1985: 129).

Many intellectuals were rewarded with prestige, public [recognition] and research funds precisely for operating within the ideological blinders set by the Agency…Not merit nor skill, but politics—the Washington line—defined ‘truth’ and ‘excellence’ and future chairs in prestigious academic settings, [foundations] and museums (Petras 1999: para. 18).

CIA covert enterprises weaponised journals, books, conferences, seminars, art fairs, concerts in the name of freedom of expression that became instrumental to advancing national interests (Saunders 1995).

*Meagre resources located in the online mainstream media in traditional Chinese (Google search - News 谷歌搜尋 - 新聞 - 抽象主義/抽象表現主義 中央情報局), in particular the news outlets.

Sources: Chisem, J. 2012. U.S. Propaganda and the Cultural Cold War. E-International Relations. https://www.e-ir.info/2012/08/16/u-s-propaganda-and-the-cultural-cold-war/

Cockcroft, E. 1985. In Francis Frascina (ed.) Pollock and after the critical debate. https://www.columbia.edu/itc/barnard/arthist/wolff/pdfs/week4_cockcroft.pdf

Levine, L. 2020. Was modern art really a CIA Psy-Op. JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/was-modern-art-really-a-cia-psy-op/

Ninkovich, F. 1977. The currents of cultural diplomacy: art and the State Department, 1938-1947. Diplomatic History, 1(3), 215–237. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24909963

Petras, J. 1999. The CIA and the Cultural Cold War revisited. Monthly Review Volume 51(6). https://web.archive.org/web/20170809163714/https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/CIAcultCW.pdf

Saunders, F.S. 1995. Modern art was CIA 'weapon'. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html

友義（責編）。2015。文化藝術：外交官的秘密武器。BBC新聞。 https://www.bbc.com/ukchina/trad/vert_cul/2015/12/151203_vert_cul_art-the-diplomats-secret-weapon

米歇爾馬德爾卡姆希。2017。抽象藝術是對美國價值觀的荒誕顛倒 （張小清譯）。大紀元。 https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/17/6/1/n9214573.htm

郝廣才。2016。特務也要搞懂藝術。今周刊。 https://www.businesstoday.com.tw/article/category/154685/post/201608040009/

皺婷。2018。旁設政治：文化自由與冷戰。典藏。 https://artouch.com/art-views/content-2068.html

鄭勝天。無日期。CIA...

It's just an exhibition hall, nothing special. Restrooms too small, not enough reasonable restaurants. This would be a good place to have a food court, but just a few restaurants and lots of outside vendors passing out flyers. Well, there are some tables in the basement, but the room looks like a basement conversion with little effort put on the conversion. There is a direct underground connection to the MRT, and dual escalators when you get to the building, but even during the morning rush, one is always closed and everyone has to crowd around to enter the single one or take the stairs. Overall, for something that is going to be the only significant contact with Taiwan for some foreigners, it is not designed to give a...

With an important theme such as Food and Coffee Exhibit, there is literally 1035 free spots for bikes, and a wait line of 2 hours for car parking, all surrounding paking lots public and private are full and a long line waiting...

You spend more time finding a parking space than assisting the actual exhibition, it is a shame, laughable and shortsighted design, being an all new construction, it is a joke of a place. International exhibition centre? Give me a break, it is for for local shows only....

And the architects/designers and goverment officials who approved the whole clusterfuc..d project? Good luck reincarnating.... you'll sure need it... Dont believe in it? Well you are in luck, purgatory will be...