PAUL JENKINS (AMERICAN, 1923-2012)

PAUL JENKINS (AMERICAN, 1923-2012)
Eyes of the Dove: Lucifer Life
signed 'Paul Jenkins' (lower centre); further signed, inscribed and dated 'Paul Jenkins/Eyes of the Dove: Lucifer Life/New York 1959' (verso)
oil on canvas
76.7 x 102 cm. (30 1/8 x 40 1/8 in.)

Provenance
Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd., London, where purchased by
Private Collection, thence by descent
Their sale; Christie's, London, 25 September 2014, lot 44, where purchased by the present owner

Exhibited
London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd., Recent Developments in Painting III, 1960, cat.no.30, p.5 (ill)

William Paul Jenkins, born in 1923 in Missouri, was known to have expressed an interest in art from an early age. His inspiration grew from frequent visits to the Eastern art collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City during his youth. After serving in the U.S. Maritime Service and U.S. Naval Air Corps during World War II, he moved to New York in 1948. There, he studied under Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889-1953) at the Art Students League, where many prominent artists, including Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), and Barnett Newman (1905-1970), also honed their craft. It was at the League that Jenkins developed his abstract expressionist style, experimenting with flowing paint, bold lines, and vibrant pigments, influenced by his interest in Eastern religion, philosophy, and the colour theories of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Jenkins became known for his controlled paint-pouring technique. He documented in his notebooks, “When I work on primed canvas, I can control the flow of paint and guide it to discover forms. The ivory knife is an essential tool in this because it does not gouge the canvas; it allows me to guide the paint.” This technique is evident in the dynamic movement of paint in the present work, which was exhibited by Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd. in London at the 1960 exhibition Recent Developments in Painting III.