The Committee on Global Thought was established by Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger in 2006 with the mission of enhancing the university’s engagement with issues of global importance. The Committee is committed to cross-disciplinary and transnational approaches in order to address the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first-century world. The CGT developed a project and conference on politics and freedom of artistic expression entitled Politics of Visual Arts in a Changing World: New Issues, New Actors, New Methods. It addresses the ways contemporary visual art has become fodder for a wider cultural and political struggle—and how artists and arts institutions can best respond.
Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University
1964
Philip Johnson commissioned Warhol to make a large-scale work for the exterior for his pavilion for the New York World’s Fair, along with other artists. Warhol’s provocative response, a multiple portrait of ‘Most Wanted Men’ was installed a few days before the opening but was deems too inflammatory and contrary to the upbeat image of the World’s Fair and the work was taken down.