“Bennett argues that "Paul Engle, the workshop’s second director, a do-it-yourself Cold Warrior" is mostly responsible for molding Iowa's literary legacy. And he did by soliciting funds from the Farfield Foundation, which "was not really a foundation; it was a CIA front that supported cultural operations, mostly in Europe, through an organization called the Congress for Cultural Freedom." That was just the beginning.”

The idea was to fund art in a diferent style than what the soviets made. The Soviets had a 'socialist realism' style, so the CIA boosted abstract and stylized art, so the Soviets would look dated.

Although it's more likely that the Soviet's stifling, top down system made artistic expression and change difficult, causing them to look dated regardless of what the CIA did.