Paul Jenkins (American, 1923–2012) is a painter whose works are described as embodying the character and soul of Post-War American abstraction. Known for his process of pouring paint onto the canvas, Jenkins’s works are characterized by vivid, jewel-toned colors. By directing the canvas to control the flow of paint, Jenkins achieved a luminous, diaphanous effect in his pigments. Born in Kansas City, MO, Jenkins studied at the Kansas City Art Institute from 1936 until 1941. As a student at New York’s Art Students League from 1948 until 1952, he worked with Yasuo Kuniyoshi and came to be connected to the Abstract Expressionist movement.

Following his extended stay in Europe in 1953 and 1954, Jenkins obtained a studio, first on St. Mark’s Place, later on E. 12th Street, and, in 1964, took over Willem de Kooning’s studio in New York City. Jenkins’s works are included in the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., as well as the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Fogg Museum of Art at Harvard University, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among many others.