Paul Jenkins

Born in 1923 in Kansas City, Missouri, Paul Jenkins is recognized as a central figure in Post-war Abstract Expressionist painting. In 1948, he came to New York where, on the G.I. Bill, he studied for four years at the Art Students League under the guidance of Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Morris Kantor. In the early 1950s, he achieved prominence both in New York and Europe for his early abstractions; and, by 1956, his first solo exhibition was held at the Martha Jackson Gallery.

Employing an unorthodox approach to paint application, Jenkins' fame is as much identified with the process of controlled paint-pouring and canvas manipulation as with the gem-like veils of transparent and translucent color that have characterized his work since the late 1950s. Though his works are predominantly non-figurative, their process and compositional balance reference areas of the Jenkins’ philosophical investigations—particularly, the I Ching and the writings of Carl Jung—which he acknowledges as significant influences on his work.

Over the past five decades, Paul Jenkins’ works have been collected and exhibited by significant arts institutions internationally. His first American retrospective, organized by Philippe de Montebello and Gerald Nordland, was held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1971), traveling to the San Francisco Museum of Art (1972). Major retrospectives were held at the Palm Springs Desert Museum; Musée Picasso, Antibes; Kunstverein, Cologne; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Charleroi; and The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio. His works are held in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Gallery, Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Stedelijk Museum.