Paul Jenkins (painter)
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| Paul Jenkins | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 12, 1923 Kansas City, Missouri |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Painting |
| Training | Art Students League of New York with Yasuo Kuniyoshi |
| Movement | Abstract expressionism, Lyrical abstraction |
Paul Jenkins (born July 12, 1923) is an American abstract expressionist painter.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
He was born in 1923 in Kansas City, Missouri. In Kansas City, the artist met Frank Lloyd Wright who was commissioned by the artist's great-uncle, the Rev. Burris Jenkins, to rebuild his church after a fire. Also during his years in Kansas City, the young Jenkins visited Thomas Hart Benton and confided his intention to become a painter. The Eastern art of the Nelson-Atkins Museum [then the William Rockhill Nelson Art Gallery] had an early influence on him. In his teenage years, he moved to Struthers, Ohio to live with his mother and stepfather, who ran the local newspaper. From the U.S. Maritime Service, entered the U.S. Naval Air Corps during the war years. In 1948, he moved to New York City where, on the G.I. Bill, he studied at the Art Students League of New York with Yasuo Kuniyoshi (four years) and with Morris Kantor. During that time, he met Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman. In 1953, he traveled to Europe, working for three months in Taormina, Sicily before settling in Paris. From 1955 on, the artist has shared his time between New York and Paris. His first solo exhibition in New York was in 1956 with the Martha Jackson Gallery, a flagship gallery at the time. In the '50s, Jenkins achieved prominence both in New York and Europe for his early abstractions. The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York purchases a painting from this exhibition. Peggy Guggenheim purchased a painting from the artist's studio in Paris in 1959. In 1972, he began to exhibit with Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer in New York. In 1973, Harry N. Abrams published an extensive monograph with text by the late distinguished art historian, Albert E. Elsen. In 1983, Harry N. Abrams published Anatomy of a Cloud, a book of autobiographical collages and texts by the artist.
[edit] Works and exhibitions
As of 2010, he continues to work in acrylic on canvas, as well as watercolor on paper. His work is found in international museums and collections including The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio (near Struthers), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the Fogg Museum of Art of Harvard University, Cambridge, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul, France, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Tate Gallery in London.
Retrospective exhibitions include:
- Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover (1964)
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1971) traveling to the San Francisco Museum of Art (1972) (first American retrospective)
- Musée des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi, Charleroi, Belgium (1974)
- Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California (1980–1981)
- Musée Picasso, Antibes (1987)
Major solo exhibitions include:
- 2010 Paul Jenkins in the 1960s and 1970s: Space, Color and Light, University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, NY
- 2005 Œuvres Majeures, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille
- 2000–2001 Viaggio in Italia, Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza
- 1999 Paul Jenkins: The Early Years in Paris 1954–1960, Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, Hempstead
- 1994 Water and Color, watercolor exhibition traveling in France
- 1989 Broken Prisms and Shaman to the Prism Seen, Musées de Nice
- 1972 Traveling watercolor exhibition inaugurated at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Berger, John. "The colour code", The Guardian, October 19, 2005.
[edit] Books
- Herskovic, Marika. American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, New York School Press, 2003. ISBN 0-9677994-1-4
- Anatomy of a Cloud, published by Harry N. Abrams, with autobiographical collages and texts by the artist.
- Paul Jenkins, monograph with text by Albert E. Elsen, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1973.
- Paul Jenkins, Universe Books/Houston Museum of Fine Arts/San Francisco Museum Art, 1971 at the time of the artist's retrospective, with text by Gerald Nordland, acknowledgements by Philippe de Montebello.
- Paul Jenkins, by Jean Cassou. Published by Harry N. Abrams, 1963.
- The Paintings of Paul Jenkins, texts by Kenneth B. Sawyer, Pierre Restany, excerpt by James Fitzsimmons. Published by Editions Two Cities, Paris, 1961.
- Observations of Michel Tapié, edited by Paul and Esther Jenkins, published by George Wittenborn in New York, 1956.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Paul Jenkins in the National Gallery of Australia's Kenneth Tyler collection.
- Palais des Beaux-Arts
