Paul Jenkins (American, 1923-2012)
Phoenix

oil on canvas
Painted in 1955

Unframed: 130 x 97 cm. (51 1/4 x 38 1/4 in.) Framed: 136.6 x 100.4 cm. (53 3/4 x 39 1/2 in.)

E.J. Power (1899–1993), London
With Galerie Rive Droite, Paris
With Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd, London
The Collection of Lady Rosemary d'Avigdor Goldsmid, thence by descent

Exhibited:
Cambridge, Arts Council Gallery, New Trends in Painting: Some Pictures from a Private Collection: Tachisme and Action Painting, 20 Oct-10 Nov, 1956, cat.no.22; this exhibition travelled to York, City Art Gallery, 17 Nov-8 Dec; Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 15 Dec-29 Jan 1957; Newcastle, Hatton Gallery, 14 Feb-7 Mar; Edinburgh, The Arts Council Gallery, Mar-May, and London, The Arts Council Gallery, 25 May-22 Jun 1957

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Paul Jenkins became recognized as a key second-generation American Abstractionist, celebrated for his stained, large-scale canvases. Jenkins’s technique of the controlled poured canvas is characteristic of many of his artworks. He used the technique of pouring liquid paint, oils, acrylics, and enamels directly onto canvases and allowed the paint to drip, bleed, and pool naturally into fluid abstract washes of colour. His finished works are celebrated for their vibrant, jewel-toned, and translucent colours. The layers often resemble natural elements like oceanic pools, ceramic glazes, wind, tides, or vibrant smoke. Phoenix (1955) is no exception.

His early years based in the Midwest laid the foundations for what was to define his working practice. Growing up in Kansas City, Jenkins worked in a local commercial ceramic factory. This experience later proved crucial in defining his artistic practice through his manipulation of materials, which went beyond traditional oil and paint. His experience with the ceramics craft enabled Jenkins to fully understand both colour theory and how to manipulate materials to create fluidity within his works.

Paul Jenkins occupies a unique and vital space in the history of mid-century modernism. While he is often categorised within the broader umbrella of Abstract Expressionism, his true impact lies in how he bridged the gap between different artistic philosophies and pushed abstract art toward a more fluid, process-driven future.

Jenkins’s art occupies a space between the bold, aggressive, and impactful Abstract Expressionism of New York, expressed in works by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, and the materiality and unconventional approach used by European artists such as Jean Dubuffet and Pierre Soulages.

While Paul Jenkins is frequently discussed alongside the pioneers of the Colour Field movement, his relationship to it is nuanced. He was certainly a peer to Colour Field giants like Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis, and like them, he was obsessed with expansive areas of vibrant, poured colour.

However, Jenkins deliberately stood apart from the strict Colour Field dogma. He engineered a completely different technical approach that gave his work a distinct, luminous signature because he used a primed surface; his paintings interact with light in a way that traditional Colour Field paintings do not. Jenkins was a maverick who defied strict categorisation, and because of this, he served as a crucial bridge between several major artistic movements, philosophies, and even continents.