Paul Jenkins: Phenomena from Mistral

The paintings of American artist Paul Jenkins have come to represent the spirit, vitality, and invention of post World War II American abstraction.

artist Background

Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1923, Jenkins later moved to Youngstown, Ohio. Drawn to New York, he would become a student of Yasuo Kuniyoshi at the Art Students League and ultimately became associated with the Abstract Expressionists, inspired in part by the “cataclysmic challenge of Pollock and the total metaphysical consumption of Mark Tobey.”[1]

Art critic Lawrence Alloway, in his essay on the monograph Paul Jenkins by Albert Elsen published in 1973, details the influence that German painter Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) and American painter Morris Louis had on Jenkins during the 1950s. While shedding an incisive light on the writer’s admiration for the artist and his tendency to romanticise the facts, Alloway highlights Clement Greenberg’s involvement with Jenkins: “In the early ’60s Greenberg told me that he lent [Morris Louis’] painting to Jenkins in the hope of cleaning up Jenkins’ painting technique, encouraging him to take the shine out of his glazes and to let the ground show through more.”[2]

the artist’s evolution

Alloway summarizes the evolution of the painter: “First Jenkins was influenced by Wols, in 1953–54; then he was influenced by Louis, 1956–57, as the scale of his pictures got bigger and as his surface became simpler, a process that culminated in 1960 with his total conversion to acrylics.” Also influenced by the decalcomania technique created in the late 1930s by Oscar Dominguez and used by artists in the Surrealist movement, Jenkins would achieve a veil-like feeling in his composition: “Technical virtuosity and a picturesque imagery characterize Jenkins’ art. He works at a distance from his paintings, shielded by adroit procedures from the autographic revelations of gestural painting. There is no sign of the hand in terms of pressure or direction of stroke, so the paintings become detached and ornate images of flux.”[3]

Phenomena from Mistral, 1967, is part of a series of works each starting with the same word: phenomena. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the following definition for phenomena: an object or aspect known through the senses rather than by thought or intuition. Jenkins was indeed influenced by Jung and eastern philosophy, which shaped his artistic approach. The use of the word phenomena is an implicit homage to philosophy: “An ongoing interest in eastern religions and philosophy, the study of the I Ching, along with the writings of Carl Gustav Jung, prompted Jenkins’ turn toward inward reflection and mysticism which have dominated his aesthetic as well as his life.”[4]

Technique

Jenkins’ technical approach is unique in the Abstract Expressionist movement, avoiding the paintbrush altogether, instead allowing pigment to pool, bloom, or roll across the surface of his canvases, guiding the paint with a knife to create fluid fields of colour. Phenomena from Mistral, measuring 55 x 72 inches, perfectly exemplifies this technique. On a large canvas, a first layer of white acrylic is laid down for protection, allowing light to shine through the subsequent thin layers of paint. Then, “the artist mixes his own intense hues, combining a non-drying, highly viscous acrylic paint manufactured in Germany with an acrylic matte medium. This mixture he thins with water. He pours his paint onto a tilted canvas (unstretched if large), moving it out from puddled areas with a long-handled brush or a dull single-edged ivory knife, taking care that no “mark” of the artist’s hand is seen. […] He ‘corrects’ areas by wiping them free with water and clean cloths. If the color is too dense, he lays down a new granular white veil, which can shine through additional transparent layers of color.“

The finished work is sprayed with a special matte varnish that preserves the luminosity with no shiny surface. All of this is done “in the moment,” which the artist describes by saying that he feels like a medium responding to deep inner guidance.”[5] In this work, veils of blue, red, orange, and green form a surreal and mystical composition, with light piercing through the layers and emphasizing the central role of illumination in Paul Jenkins’ art.

[1] Dr. Louis A. Zona, Director, The Butler Institute of American Art, in.
https://www.pauljenkins.net/bio/bio.html

[2] Paul Jenkins by Lawrence Alloway in.
https://www.artforum.com/columns/paul-jenkins-214869

[3] ibid

[4] Id. Dr. Louis A. Zona, Director, The Butler Institute of American Art, in.
https://www.pauljenkins.net/bio/bio.html

[5] Diane Kirkpatrick, Three Decades of Contemporary Art: The Dr. John and Rose M. Shuey Collection, Bloomfield Hills, MI: Cranbrook Art Museum, 2001; in.
https://cranbrookartmuseum.org/artwork/paul-jenkins-phenomena-veil-over-under/

ABOUT THE AUCTION

Our major fall Fine Art auction includes important works by Group of Seven artists Lawren Harris, A.J. Casson, J.E.H. MacDonald, and A.Y. Jackson, a rare Jock Macdonald abstract, early Kazuo Nakamura paintings, Louis-Philippe Hébert’s major sculpture Algonquins, as well as striking works by Sorel Etrog and Walter Yarwood. International highlights include two exceptionally rare sketches by Sir Edward John Poynter for the Maison Dieu’s stained-glass windows in Dover, Alexander Calder’s Red Serpent, along with works by David Diao, Jules Olitski, and Gene Davis.

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