Paul Jenkins (1923-2012)

On 12 July 1923, Paul Jenkins (1923-2012) was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Exactly 100 years on, The Redfern Gallery are delighted to be exhibiting his work in our own centenary exhibition.⁠

The abstract expressionist painter is known primarily for pouring paint onto canvas and paper in flows of luminous colour. The Redfern Gallery proudly represented the artist from 2003 - 2012, and now works directly with the Paul Jenkins Foundation.⁠ 

 

Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1923, Paul Jenkins settled in New York City in 1948 where he studied with Yasuo Kuniyoshi at the Art Students League for four years. In 1953, he travelled to Europe and after working in Taormina, Sicily for three months, acquired an atelier in Paris and continued a lifelong sharing between New York and France.

His first solo exhibitions were held in Paris at Studio Paul Facchetti in 1954, the Zoe Dusanne Gallery in Seattle in 1955, in 1956 at the Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, where he exhibited for two decades and in London at Arthur Tooth & Sons in 1960.

Early group exhibitions in the UK include New Trends in Paintings, the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1956 and 1957, annual group exhibitions at Arthur Tooth & Sons from 1956 to 1964, and Post-Picasso Paris at the Hanover Gallery in 1957. In 1962, Jenkins contributed to the exhibitions Primitives to Picasso (1962) and Art USA Now (1963) at the Royal Academy.

In 1964, Jenkins accepted an invitation from Jiro Yoshihara to work with the Gutai in Osaka where he exchanged works with Gutai artists. These works were the foundation of a 2009 exhibition at the Pollock-Krasner House & Study Center in The Springs, New York, entitled “Under Each Other’s Spell”: Gutai and New York.