Painter Jackson Pollock, dubbed “Jack the Dripper” by Time magazine, was both admired and influential, but did he work for the CIA?

Not exactly. However, the CIA did use abstract expressionism as part of Cold War propaganda aimed at the Soviet Union. In the ‘50s, American critics were encouraged to contrast the “freedom of expression” represented by Pollock’s work with the grim social realism associated with the European art scene. The political goal was to promote a cultural shift, making New York, not Paris, the epicenter of the art world. 

The Line Between Humans and Animals

It is the season to admire art in an unlikely medium: eggs.  People around the world have been decorating Easter eggs for generations.   

At the end of the 1800s, a New Jersey druggist created a commercial Easter egg dye. Still in business today, PAAS offers more than 20 products. (The company takes its name from the Pennsylvania Dutch word passen, meaning Easter.) PAAS reports they sell more than 10 million egg  color kits a year – enough to dye 180 million eggs.