the painting it's how you feel by the french artist fautrier suggests the look of broken flesh, its blemishesnd craters. the italian artist fontana literally attacked the clay, ripping its surface open. he used scissors to stab these holes into the canvas. european abstract expressionism was more controlled, more finished. the american art had a different look. i'd say that we had looser surfaces. let's call it that. you felt a freshness and a kind of emphasis. i don't want to say violence. that point's been misused in this connection. franz kline drew inspiration from cubism. willem de kooning did portraits that became highly charged responses to the women who were his models. the abstract expressionists wanted to paint on the same level of quality as the old masters or as, let's say, the best of the school of paris-- picasso, matisse, mondrian. they were striving for excellence. they found they did better work when they went abstract. mark rothko chose a path to pure expression by using only gradations of color on his canvases. pollock's vision and greenberg's theory were explored by a seco