Defensively

1. Does "defensively" mean "on the contrary and in response"?

2. The role of "in New York" in the last line of the context is a bit confusing. Can I rewrite it as:

a) ... and art institutions defensively recast Marxist or Trotskyite notions of political radicalism in New York, the notions that that had earlier been associated with avant-garde or abstract painting.

or

b) ... and art institutions defensively recast Marxist or Trotskyite notions of political radicalism, the notions that that had earlier been associated with avant-garde or abstract painting in New York.

Context:

Nancy Jachec has argued that as the US took up an extreme domestic anti-communism, and modern art became a political target of extremist anti-communists in the US Congress like Joseph McCarthy and Dondero, US art critics, curators, and art institutions defensively recast Marxist or Trotskyite notions of political radicalism that had earlier been associated with avant-garde or abstract painting in New York.