How was Jackson Pollock’s work received in Europe?

Jackson Pollock’s work was notably well-received in Europe, where it often garnered more appreciation than in his home country during his lifetime. His art was showcased at the Venice Biennales in 1948, 1950, and 1956, and he was the subject of a one-man exhibition in Paris in 1952.1

European artists held his work in high regard; for instance, the French abstract artist Georges Mathieu famously identified Pollock as the "greatest living American painter" in 1949. Furthermore, Western European abstraction of the era was significantly influenced by the American model, with many European artists adopting similar techniques, though their work often remained less uncompromising in its abandonment of traditional composition compared to Pollock’s "all-over" style.12

By the late 1950s, Pollock’s work—along with that of other Abstract Expressionists—was toured throughout Europe by the Museum of Modern Art, serving as a symbol of American "free expression" during the Cold War.2