Skip to main content
Label Text The paintings of Paul Jenkins reflect the modern sense of a shifting, unpredictable world of the senses, constantly in the process of metamorphosis. The titles of all these paintings begins with "Phenomena...", indicating their relation to the processes of nature, as well as the sense of accidental discovery. Jenkin's technique is consistent: broad washes of color are flowed across the white canvas, with directions and forms controlled by moving the loose canvas. At some points the colors are run into one another; in other areas washes are laid one over the other. The element of change is suggested also by varied density of color, creating opaque, solid form at one point, and trailing off to a bare mist at another. Source: Bulletin, April 1964.
Exhibition History"Paul Jenkins Retrospective," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Oct. 12 - Dec. 12, 1971, (circulated to: San Farancisco Museum of Art, Jan. 6 - Feb. 27, 1972)

Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany, 1964

Galerie Karl Flinker, Paris, 1963
Published ReferencesDMAC BULLETIN, Apr. 1964, cover ill.

APOLLO MAGAZINE, vol.XCIV, no.117, Nov. 1971, p.415, fig.8

Albert E. Elsen, PAUL JENKINS, Harry N. Abrams, N. Y., 1973, b/w studio ill. pl. no.106, color ill. pl.107

"Paul Jenkins Retrospective," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1971, exh. cat. no.17, ref. p.34, color ill. pl. no.7, p.18

DES MOINES SUNDAY REGISTER, Mar. 22, 1964, ill.

DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. pp.87-89, b/w ill. pl.63, p.87
DimensionsOverall: 76 5/8 × 59 in. (194.6 × 149.9 cm)
Accession Number 1964.5
Classificationspainting
SignedPaul Jenkins (l,r acrylic paint)
Inscriptions"Phenomena Alter Tide" Paul Jenkins, Paris, 1963 (verso u,l); "Phenomena Alter Tide" Paul Jenkins 1963 (verso on stretcher bar)
ProvenanceArtist. (Galerie Karl Flinker, Paris); Mrs. Albert D. Lasker; Des Moines Art Center [gift of the previous, 1964]
Phenomena Alter Tide
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Edward Dugmore
1970
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Peter Halley
1993
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1984
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Robert Matthew Freimark
1960
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Jordan Weber
2013
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
William T. Wiley
1972
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Check Boterf
1968
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Friedel Dzubas
1966
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Leonard Ragouzeos
1975
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Agnes Martin
1974