The emblem of the United Nations as it appears in an official document of the UN published in the United States prior to 17 September 1987. Made available by Wikipedia. Public domain.
As the Chrysler and Empire State buildings redefined the Manhattan skyline (1930 and 1931 respectively), the Rockefeller family led by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was at work establishing the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, 1929) and constructing Rockefeller Center (1930). The Center was completed in 1939, the year that the museum was renovated and relocated adjacent.
1939 would prove a stellar year at MoMA, a non-profit outfit founded amid the Wall Street Crash a decade earlier. It would bring Picasso’s masterpiece, “Guernica” to its galleries where it would reside for 42 years (1939-81), until restoration of the Spanish Republic allowed for its return to the artist’s native country.
A copy of the painting in the form of a tapestry hangs outside the Security Council chambers at United Nations headquarters, another urban plan of the Rockefeller’s stewarded by family architect, Wallace Harrison on 16 acres of land purchased and donated mid-century by J.D. Rockefeller, Jr.’s son, Nelson Rockefeller.
Like the Vatican, UN New York headquarters resides on extraterritorial land beyond the jurisdiction of the surrounding nation state. The UN secretariat has additional offices in Geneva; Nairobi; and Vienna, the only outpost situated in the European Union (Austria is an EU member, but not a member of the military alliance, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO.)
During the Vietnam War, MoMA’s “Guernica” gallery hosted peace vigils. Disrupting one such occasion, aspiring artist, Tony Shafrazi vandalized the art work, spraying the statement, “Kill Lies All” in red paint onto the surface. Since its installation at the Museo Reina Sofia in 1992 the painting has been protected by glass.
Despite eluding interpretation, “Guernica” has managed to conjure more commentary than any other work of art in the modern era. Picasso was commissioned by the Spanish Republic to issue an art work for exhibition at the national pavilion in the 1937 World’s Fair, Paris. He found inspiration in the allied fascist bombing of the Basque town, Gernika and produced the painting feverishly in a short time period. When it was unveiled at the Fair it was accompanied by a poem, “Liberty,” by Paul Éluard (the poem was also air-dropped in a British public relations campaign). The surrealist poet had served in World War I and like Albert Camus, became active in the French Resistance. It is said that upon viewing the painting at the Fair, a Nazi officer spotted the artist and asked, “Did you do this?” To which Picasso wittily retorted, “No, you did.”
Hitler with Albert Speer and Arno Breker on the terrace of the Palais de Chaillot, in the background the Eiffel Tower. Made available by Wikimedia Commons. Office of the National Archives, Hoffmann Collection. Public domain.
The 1937 World’s Fair was titled, “International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life.” It was held at the Place du Trocadéro, also known as the Place du 11 Novembre on account of the WWI armistice (11.11.18). The Chaillot Hill on which the Trocadéro and its structures are situated faces the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty and houses a number of museums including the Museum of Man. Facing the Trocadéro is the Palais de Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Contemporary Art.
A notorious photograph of Hitler at the Chaillot Hill commemorates the Nazi occupation of Paris. The site was the initial headquarters of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO; Palais de l’OTAN) and it was there that the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 1948).
The sensibility of “Guernica” is electric, redolent of the bombardment that the Bush administration would later describe as, “shock and awe”. Having obtained widespread recognition as a symbol of peace, the iconic replica at the UN was shuttered with curtains to provide a neutral backdrop for General Colin Powell’s plea for allied war in Iraq under the false pretense that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling “weapons of mass destruction”. The New York Times characterized the masquerade as censorship, yet did its utmost to promote the government’s misinformation in attempt to galvanize support of the invasion of the Persian Gulf.
Last year, the replica was removed from the UN by Nelson Rockefeller, Jr. without explanation. It was recently returned with the understanding that it belongs to a Trust, not to the UN and (like the original painting) may be subject to travel.
Arguably no other artist figures as prominently within the modernist canon set by MoMA curators than the Spaniard, Pablo Picasso whose surname was Ruiz. An eccentric who lived according to his own design, Picasso was an atheist and polygamist who spent the entirety of his adult life in exile. During World War II, his application for French citizenship was denied on account of his affiliation with anarchists and his membership with the Communist Party. His painting of a broken man at a brothel in the company of prostitutes was rejected as a proposed donation to the Louvre. It found a home at MoMA, where it is cherished as a masterpiece, a transitional work from his primitivist to cubist styles.
“Guernica” is the artist’s largest work, with the exception of the site-specific mural, “The Fall of Icarus,” (1958) situated at the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris. Both tableaux are somber, predominately black and white. They meld biomorphic and geometric shapes in a hybrid style suggestive of cubism and surrealism. The UNESCO mural was originally titled, “The Forces of Life and Spirit Triumphing over Evil.” It is hard to see life forces at work in this dismal depiction of bathers at a beach. Picasso’s somber response to Matisse’s luminescent Rosary Chapel at Vence (1951), the UNESCO installation is secular and primitive to the extent of suggesting a cave painting.
It is said that Picasso’s “Women of Algiers,” series of paintings (1954-55) which were made at the start of the Algerian War (1954-62) were as much a tribute to Matisse as to Delacroix. Matisse had reveled in the French Orientalist infatuation with the ‘odalisque’, a concubine in a Turkish harem.
I find myself thinking of Charles de Gaulle on this Veterans’ Day. For more reason than his having brought an end to the Algerian War.
If not for De Gaulle, France would not have had a seat at the victor’s table after World War II. In defiance of Vichy government—which had caved to the Nazi’s—De Gaulle fled the country and brokered a tenuous alliance between his Free French Forces and what he called the Anglo-Saxons (UK–U.S.). He issued a radio address on June 18, 1940 that constituted nothing short of treason and resulted in his condemnation to death on the home front. He admonished the French to defy demoralization and to continue resisting Nazi occupation. Outmaneuvered by the Anglo-Saxons with whom he was supposedly cooperating, he was excluded from negotiations and came to distrust their partnership. Apparently, the Free French Forces refused to share their codes or to use British and American codes to communicate.
De Gaulle criticized NATO as an outfit under UK–US domination to the extent that it could not be relied upon to honor its commitment to defend Europe. Forever keen to protect the sovereignty of France, De Gaulle was suspicious of the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC, Treaty of Rome, 1957), the pan-European alliance that has evolved into the European Union. When Britain applied to the EEC in 1963, De Gaulle’s response was a succinct, “No.”
Committed to maintaining constructive relations with another WWII ally, Russia, De Gaulle attempted to broker a Cold War détente in the early 1960s between the US and USSR. At that period, he also arranged for a cease-fire in Algeria, signing the Evian Accords that brought the former French colony its independence. It is debatable which action may have prompted a slew of assassination attempts, the most serious of which arrived in 1962, the year of the assassinations of Aldo Moro and Enrico Mattei in Italy. As reformer of the National Fuel Trust, Mattei had struck a business partnership between Italy and Russia. His energy policies were to be enacted by Prime Minister Moro. Mattei’s plane was brought down—likely by a bomb—right before he was to travel to Washington to meet with JFK. A year later, the US President spoke at the UN advocating peaceful withdrawal from Vietnam and US–USSR détente and cooperation in space exploration. Within two months, JFK would also be dead.
An excerpt from JFK’s 1963 address to the United Nations
The world has not escaped from the darkness. The long shadows of conflict and crisis envelop us still. But we meet today in an atmosphere of rising hope, and at a moment of comparative calm. My presence here today is not a sign of crisis, but of confidence. I am not here to report on a new threat to the peace or new signs of war. I have come to salute the United Nations and to show the support of the American people for your daily deliberations.
For the value of this body's work is not dependent on the existence of emergencies--nor can the winning of peace consist only of dramatic victories. Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. And however undramatic the pursuit of peace, that pursuit must go on.
Long suspicious of the supranational powers of NATO, during summer of 1963, De Gaulle had France withdraw its Atlantic and Channel fleets from NATO command. Three years later, the General officially announced France’s intention to withdraw from NATO and expel NATO bases from French territory. Within two years, he was ousted under the premise of a popular uprising (May 68).
It is said that De Gaulle had a special adoration of his daughter, Anne who died aged 20. Anne had Down syndrome. The De Gaulle’s were advised to put her in a nursing home. Happily, they didn’t follow that advice.
Happy Armistice everybody!
Pray that peace comes to Europe!
Thanks for reading.
Comments are most welcome as always.
Love and Peace,
Poppy
The more I discover through Substack and from those who dig deep into forbidden knowledge, the more I realize just how little I actually know. Ryan Christian, creator and host of the Last American Vagabond sums it all up quite simply: Question everything.
Consider adding this to your list of resources. It’s very long (11 plus hrs) so take it in small bites if you need to. But you’ll find out how true it is when they say history is written by the victors. https://rumble.com/v1mk6ux-europa-the-last-battle-2017-full-documentary-hd-the-history-of-the-cabal.html