Ten years after his first extensive solo exhibition in a public space in Italy held at the Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza in 2000, the American Paul Jenkins, one of the most important living modern painters, is back in Italy, with a striking show taking place concurrently at two venues in Prato, curated by Mauro Stefanini, and opening on the 8th of May 2010.

Exhibition sites:

- Palazzo Pacchiani, an 18th century Palazzo located in the center of Prato, under the auspices of the Commune of Prato
- Galleria Open Art

After his enriching travels to Italy in 1953, when the artist made significant discoveries at Pompei and at Taormina in Sicily, Jenkins returns for this exhibition organized by the Prato-based gallery, featuring a selection of paintings from the late 50s to recent works.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1923, Jenkins studied at the Art Students League in New York City with the painter Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Living and working in the midst of the fervor of American Abstract Expressionism, a close friend of Jackson Pollock and keen observer of Mark Rothko’s work, Jenkins developed his own unique unmistakable style over more than 50 years following his European experience. His first solo exhibition was held in Paris in 1954, at the Studio Paul Facchetti and in New York City, at the Martha Jackson Gallery in 1956.

Inspired by the primordial force of color on the whiteness of the canvas, the artist brought a naturalness of expressionist gesture to the history and tradition of Europe, as he sought resolution within the fertile and primal “co-existence of opposites.” The painting of Jenkins, through its manifest knowledge and continued involvement with Eastern culture, situates itself as a unique and absolute meditation on nature and history, present and past, instinct and reason.

EXHIBITION DATES
Galleria Open Art 8 May - 24 July 2010
Palazzo Pacchiani 8 May - 30 June 2010

HOURS
Galleria Open Art: 4:00pm – 8:00pm Monday to Friday 10:30 – 1:00pm/4:00-8:00pm Saturdays
Palazzo Pacchiani: 3:00pm – 8:00pm Monday to Saturday
Closed Sundays and holidays

EDIZIONI
Gli Ori – Galleria Open Art – vol. 21 Italian/English

Catalogue published by Mauro Stefanini, with the collaboration of the artist and Suzanne Donnelly Jenkins Text by Beatrice Buscaroli