Paul Jenkins

American, 1923-2012

Paul Jenkins was an American Abstract Expressionist, known especially for his use of pigment in oil, acrylic and enamel and for developing his signature “Phenomena” series. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Jenkins cultivated his early interest in art at the Kansas City Art Institute before serving in the U.S. Naval Air Corps during World War II. After the war, under the G.I. Bill, he studied at New York’s Art Students League with Yasuo Kuniyoshi.

In 1953 Jenkins traveled in Europe, settling for long periods in Paris while continuing to maintain a studio in New York. His transatlantic career brought together American and European influences that informed the development of his abstract style. He experimented with poured and scraped washes of color, exploring the relationship between shape, gesture, and the way pigments interact on primed surfaces—often using tools like the “ivory knife” instead of traditional brushstrokes.

Through decades of exhibitions and retrospectives, Jenkins’s paintings entered public and private collections around the world. His major exhibitions include retrospectives at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the San Francisco Museum of Art, and shows spanning Europe and the United States.