We can never be sure now can we? I mean, there are great artists who aren't famous and struggle and remain unknown, and then there are artists (talented or otherwise) who either know (or have backers that know) how to play the game to earn fame and / or make a good living. Talented or not, would he have been famous and successful without the CIA propaganda? I remember reading about some famous painter who used to make his intern help him with client commissioned works, but when the clients themselves came to review it, he would make sure they never saw the interns and would pretend to have painted the whole thing himself.