Paul Jenkins

An American abstract artist and member of the New York School. Jenkins’s innovative practice was characterized by his choice to avoid 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 color.

Born William Paul Jenkins on July 12, 1923 in Kansas City, MO, Jenkins worked at a ceramics factory in his youth, an experience that heavily influenced his tactile methods of painting. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Art Students League in New York with Yasuo Kuniyoshi. A close friend of Mark Rothko, Jenkins remained tied to the city even during his move to Paris during the 1950s.