Honors College Signature Seminar Unpacks the Visual Culture of the Cold War

When reflecting on America in the mid-20th century, what comes to mind? Perhaps an image of glowing television sets broadcasting family sitcoms, Life magazine covers celebrating U.S. technological optimism and the rapid spread of suburbia, with its tract housing, manicured lawns and new shopping centers. Sputnik's launch in 1957 and the ensuing space race turned astronauts into national heroes. Meanwhile, fallout shelters, civil defense drills, McCarthy-era blacklists and a pervasive climate of suspicion influenced everyday life.  

Amid these cultural fixtures, visual art also shaped the American story. Beyond the orderly images of American life were the works of Abstract Expressionists — including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Helen Frankenthaler — whose splatters and abstractions offered a radically different approach to the work of art. Their paintings embodied a personal expression that served unique social and cultural functions, according to John Blakinger, endowed associate professor of contemporary art and director of the Art History program. 

"There are well-documented revisionist accounts that trace how this type of painting was strategically employed as a form of soft power propaganda during the Cold War," Blakinger explains, describing how Abstract Expressionism served ideological and political purposes. Later artists would instead create transgressive works, using their art subversively to challenge the political establishment. 

Blakinger will teach the Honors Signature Seminar Crafting the Cold War this spring, which will explore the creative cultures of the era, from midcentury modern painting to alternative craft, media and design practices. Students will examine how art, politics and society intersected in movements from the Beat Generation to the revolutionary countercultures of the 1960s, and how events like the Vietnam War shaped new forms of creative expression. 

"We can't view art as separate or autonomous from the world; we have to see it as an actor," Blakinger said. "My work is always about returning to primary sources. That's something I want to do with the students. We will examine a wide range of materials and build this history together in the classroom." 

In the case of Abstract Expressionism, Blakinger explains that art historians have recognized its potential in Cold War politics not only by tracing the funding behind its creation and international exhibition but also by understanding its apparent lack of explicit messaging. 

"They appear to be blank, but that's what makes them useful," he said, explaining that rather than seeing such paintings as devoid of meaning, art historians view them as purposely open-ended. "They can be framed and reframed to find new functions and readings among new audiences." 

Students will be tasked with uncovering the legacy of the Cold War's aesthetic strategies and exploring how this formative moment in art and history can illuminate the culture of contemporary conflicts. 

"Following on the heels of the highly successful Honors College Pulse Panel Discussion: Nuclear, this adventurous seminar will partner a top faculty member from art history with an interdisciplinary crew of honors students who together will mine the tense history of the Cold War in its visual and material forms," said Lynda Coon, dean of the Honors College. "This will be an exceptional opportunity for the intellectually curious." 

SIGNATURE SEMINARS EXPLORE DIVERSE TOPICS  

Crafting the Cold War is one of three Honors College Signature Seminars scheduled for spring 2026. The other courses offered are:   

Supply Chain and Society — taught by Marc Scott, associate department chair of the J.B. Hunt Transport Department of Supply Chain Management and associate professor of practice.  

From Fayetteville to Freedom and Back: Nelson Hackett's Flight From Slavery— taught by Michael Pierce, associate professor of history and director of the U of A Humanities Center's Nelson Hackett Project.   

The dean of the Honors Colleges nominates top research faculty to participate in this program, and those selected to teach will become Dean's Fellows in the Honors College.          

Honors students must apply to participate, and those selected will be designated Dean's Signature Scholars. The course application is posted online on the Signature Seminars web page. The deadline to apply is Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.   

ABOUT JOHN BLAKINGER 

Blakinger is an endowed associate professor of contemporary art in the School of Art at the U of A, where he has served as director of the Art History program since 2021. Before joining the university, he taught at the University of Oxford, where he was the 2018-19 Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at the University of Southern California (2016-18) and a predoctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (2014-16). 

Blakinger's research focuses on the history, theory and criticism of late modern and contemporary art, with particular interest in the intersection of aesthetics and politics. His book Gyorgy Kepes: Undreaming the Bauhaus (MIT Press, 2019)—the first English-language monograph on a pioneering artist who collaborated with scientists—was named a New York Times Best Art Book of 2019 and was a finalist for the 2020 PROSE Award in Art History and Criticism. 

His recent writing includes essays on Robert Rauschenberg's Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), Ruth Asawa's wartime incarceration, environmental design at MIT and the politics of children's art education in the mid-20th century. 

Blakinger is currently working on two book projects: The Culture War Machine, which explores how digital culture is transforming debates over museums, money, power and the past; and Crafting the Cold War, which examines the geopolitical role of experimental craft practices in textiles, ceramics and metals during the early Cold War. 

About the Honors College: The University of Arkansas Honors College was established in 2002 and brings together high-achieving undergraduate students and the university's top professors to share transformative learning experiences. Each year the Honors College awards up to 90 freshman fellowships that provide $80,000 over four years, and more than $1 million in undergraduate research and study abroad grants. The Honors College is nationally recognized for the high caliber of students it admits and graduates. Honors students enjoy small, in-depth classes, and programs are offered in all disciplines, tailored to students' academic interests, with interdisciplinary collaborations encouraged. All Honors College graduates have engaged in mentored research. 

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $3 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.