Paul Jenkins

Paul Jenkins – Early successes with abstract pictures of thin colours

Paul Jenkins was born in Kansas City, Missouri on 12 July 1923. He spent his childhood there and studied at the Art Institute from 1936 to 1941, where he was particularly fascinated with Asian pictorial worlds and ceramic works. Following military service from 1943 to 1945, Jenkins moved in 1948 to New York City to study at the Art Students League of New York. His first teacher was the Japanese painter Kuniyoshi Yasuo, who taught him for four years. The stimulating environment of New York fertilised the young artist, who made the acquaintance of important artists during this time such as Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. Like many creative people before him, Jenkins was drawn at least for a time to the ideas of the esoteric Georges I Gurdjieff. This finely spun network of different types of influences led in the early 1950s to his first abstract pictures of thinly spread colours which quickly brought him wide recognition amongst art lovers in the USA and Europe. 

Watercolour, sculptures and a torrent of thick paint

In the course of his growing success, Paul Jenkins travelled to Europe which gave him fresh impressions and moved him to a new approach to his art. In 1964, his pictures were part of Documenta III in Kassel. Throughout, Paul Jenkin’s artistic development never stood still, with a phase of white and grey tones followed by experiments with watercolour and bronze sculptures, and simultaneously working on his monumental sculpture Mandala Meditation Sundial for several years. In 1979, Jenkins made the move to the painting style that is primarily associated with him to this day: The once thin gradients of colour that had brought him initial fame now became thick layers of pigment that he poured over the canvases. The strong, vividly bright colour surfaces became characteristic for the work of Paul Jenkins and made him known to a large international audience. As a master of Abstract Expressionism, he was now one of the icons of modern art history. 

Exhibited and honoured many times; always willing to experiment

Paul Jenkins started a triumphal march through the world’s important museums with his art: Today, his work can be found in, amongst others, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Tate Gallery in London. His works have been immortalised in various films and books, and at the end of the 1980s, the artist ventured into the world of theatre. Paul Jenkins received prizes and awards for his art including the Silver Meal for Painting at the 20th Biennale in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington and the Benjamin Clinedinst Medal in 2000.

Paul Jenkins died in New York City on 9 June 2012 following a short illness. His wife Alice Baber was also a successful artist.