Throughout the 1950’s a unitary notion of French art guided by classical principles of order, discipline and heroic sensibility prevailed in critical and official discourse in France. Despite the presence of a great variety of contemporary approaches stemming from School of Paris influences, contemporary painting falling outside a narrowly defined French classical rubric enjoyed neither institutional support nor critical acclaim.

However, by 1959, the failure to embrace international cosmopolitanism of the sort represented by the School of Paris and postwar abstract expressionists in France threatened the very reputation of the French. On the heels of the widely acclaimed Jackson Pollock and the New American Painting exhibit and other abstract expressionist shows brought to Europe in the 1950’s, The United States, already enjoying political and economic superpower status, seemed to be eclipsing France as a worldwide cultural force as well. The Paris Biennale, the first official international exhibition dedicated to cosmopolitan modernism in French history, rapidly made its debut. Minister of Culture André Malraux described the Biennale as “a defense of the School of Paris” and cited the worldwide impact of School of Paris artists such as Mondrian, Klee and Kandinsky newly deemed “French.” Efforts at repositioning American abstract expressionist painters on the cultural periphery appeared. Malraux asserted Jackson Pollock’s debt to contemporary French painters, explaining “A few accounts are to be settled, and most particularly, Jackson Pollock’s debt to Fautrier, Wols and Masson – all this to be nicely catalogued, documented, and dated.”

The 1959 Paris Biennale afforded French cultural officials the opportunity to refocus world attention on the French. This paper will examine the launching of the Paris Biennale as a vehicle aimed at the restoration of French leadership by means of a reexamination of cultural memory.