Did you know the CIA has a gallery of artworks based on important moments in the history of US intelligence? You can’t easily get in to see them, though some of the work is viewable online. And now you can check out reproductions of almost all of the paintings at the Southern Museum of Flight near Birmingham Airport in Alabama. The exhibit is titled “Shadow Gallery, The Art of Intelligence.” From the Associated Press:
One print depicts a B-26 bomber flying over Cuba during the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, when Alabama National Guard pilots flew for the CIA in a bid to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Another print shows World War II spy Virginia Hall tapping out code in occupied France, another a sunken Soviet submarine being lifted off the ocean floor during a secret 1974 operation.
Above, James Dietz’s oil painting of an early operation against al-Qa’ida in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001. Below: Keith Woodcock’s oil painting of a 1968 operation during which Air America helicopter pilots shot down a North Vietnamese biplane on its way to destroy a US radar base; and Dru Blair’s illustration of the A-12 OXCART secret plane’s first flight in May 1967.
