Apparently, the CIA spent a small part of its budget on these paintings in order to promote Abstract Expressionism, because they believed that it would totally freak out and demoralize the Soviets who were accustomed to the blandness of Socialist Realism!
In other words, the idea was that if this is your idea of proper art...
...and you find out that the crazy decadent American artists are making paintings like this...
...then your skull will do this:
Look how free we are in America, sovki!