New York / Washington / London

The funding and organization of bringing an American version of the avant-garde to Europe was complex - some indication can be found in the 1983 book of Serge Guilbaut - a French art historian who wrote it in the mid-seventies at UCLA (California), a daring subject, then and now. The three reference books I single out in the back booklist are all written by academics where the art world and its specific dynamic is elusive ; my contribution is from inside knowledge and what intuitively feels plausible, fuelled by reading, documentaries and personal discussions with many who saw some part of what I describe. The recently re-issued Kim Philby memoirs written in Moscow in the ‘60s, on his life as a double-agent for the KGB and M16, gives an interesting glimpse of the kind of minds at work in his Washington post where he met many CIA people, in particular Frank Wisner, who later headed the CIA London office - his comment on him is redolent of a sense of superiority, culturally, which was probably inevitable, given the gap in education. He talks of CIA operatives being taught table etiquette before being launched into social circles abroad in which they had no experience - while advising them to look for rich wives. It smacks of a gravy-train for war-time agents who not only didn’t want to be de-mobbed into civilian life but had had a taste of the high life in Europe as fêted liberators. That was certainly the case with Frank Wisner who had been in Europe during the war with the husband of Katherine Graham (later editors of the Washington Post).

The art function was uniquely useful socially... people met in public places frequently : openings, museums and private parties - coming across lively unusual people (artists) with tolerant discretion and their wealthy patrons - not to mention any anonymous person one wanted to contact under cover. Galleries were open all day i.e. there was always a place to meet. To this day, it’s fairly unusual for introductions to be made in galleries - the norm is to talk anonymously about the work or something else (art would go under if it depended on people caring about the works on the wall). Most attractive of all was the fact that one didn’t have to do tiresome swotting to look erudite as in literature and music. Artists were expected to be interesting but not too bright and they have long since learnt not to take offence at

idiotic remarks if the person could be a possible buyer. To become a collector of modern art in those days cost remarkably little and the prestige it conferred was out of all proportion to the investment. It was a mini-world apart - international in the sense it was always seeking to assess the state of play in relation to the American stars, whose position could never be publicly assailed. Although in private much negative comment was exchanged, even in seemingly compliant London.