Ironically the "individual self expression" is uniform - a certain kind of tame depoliticised artistic creativity marketed as a hustle. It's there all the way down from Gagosian to Etsy.

And there are good reasons for it, and also good reasons why you'll find ab ex in bank foyers and very expensive homes.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artcurious-cia-art-excerpt...

There's always been a tight and complex relationship between art, money, and power, and there's always been a propaganda angle, or at least a statement of public values, to public imagery.

But so far as I know the 20th century was the first time state agencies began inventing new aesthetic traditions for political ends (socialist realism in the USSR, ab ex in the US).