Especially as the competition between
national schools of abstract painting escalated, breaking out
in arguments and even punches
in the case of Kline and the French painter Jean Fautrier, it would follow that the internal competition within these
national schools also intensified.27 This was certainly true on the French side at the Venice Biennale:
in a very
unusual move, two artists — Fautrier and Hans Hartung — were awarded Grand Prizes
in painting, whereas normally only one was given, because the jury could not decide between the two contenders.28 Within the
context of the politics internal to the movement of abstract expressionism, Meryon could thus be seen as a reassertion of Kline's original, breakthrough style as his own and thus a defence of his personal artistic identity, after Kline himself had turned to colour, around 1955, and left it up for grabs.