Mural was immediately recognized as a turning point for American art. Art critic Clement Greenberg had written encouraging but less than whole-hearted endorsements in his Pollock reviews, but, he said after he saw the big mural in Guggenheim's townhouse, "I took one look at it and I thought, 'Now that's great art,' and I knew Jackson was the greatest painter this country had produced." From this point on, throughout the forties, Greenberg was a firm advocate of Pollock's art, and in turn Pollock's success canonized Greenberg's judgment.