Phenomena Break of Dawn
Date1983
Mediumgouache on arches paper
DimensionsSheet: 30 × 42 inches (76.2 × 106.7 cm)
Framed: 38 3/8 × 50 1/16 inches (97.5 × 127.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Dwight H. Emanuelson.
Object number1997.6.2
Copyright© Estate of Paul Jenkins 2023 / licensed by ADAGP.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextA Kansas City native, William Paul Jenkins studied at the Art Students League in New York from 1948 to 1952. As a student and practicing artist in the city, he came to know many members of the New York avant-garde; Jackson Pollock and Mark Tobey were particularly influential to his art. In 1953 Jenkins moved to Paris, where he lived for decades, experimenting freely with form and technique, as many of his American contemporaries were doing across the Atlantic. Jenkins’ fluid abstractions were especially commercially and critically successful in the 1950s Parisian art world. In later life he lived in both Paris and New York.
Jenkins and his colleagues, many of whom are considered the second generation of abstract expressionists, largely abandoned the paintbrush, employing instead innovative methods to manipulate the composition before the pigment dried. Jenkins’ tool of choice was the blade, which he used to scrape the surface of his canvases. He titled his gentle, thoughtfully controlled, color-field works “Phenomena,” followed by an identifying word or phrase.
