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Maker(s):Jenkins, Paul
Culture:American (1923-2012)
Title:Phenomena seen from a Glass
Date Made:1966
Type:Painting
Materials:Acrylic on canvas
Place Made:North America; United States
Measurements:Frame: 114 1/2 in x 60 1/2 in; 290.83 cm x 153.67 cm; Stretcher: 114 in x 60 in; 289.56 cm x 152.4 cm
Narrative Inscription:  SIGNATURE/DATE: verso, upp. l. (black marker): Paul Jenkins "Phenomena Seen From A Glass" 1966; SIGNATURE/TITLE/MEASURMENTS: verso, ctr. l. (black marker): Paul Jenkins "Phenomena Seen from A Glass" 114 x 60.
Accession Number:  MH 1970.304.I(b).PI
Credit Line:Gift of William S. Rubin Foundation
Museum Collection:  Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
mh_1970_304_i_b_pi_v1.jpg

Description:
Vertical abstract composition: streams of yellow, green and violet meet a field of turqoise from the left.

Label Text:
American abstract expressionist Paul Jenkins painted with his canvases lying flat on the ground. Using a bone knife, Jenkins moved and pushed his paint around on the surface. Once satisfied with the composition, he would allow the drying process to form the final details of the work.

The composition of Phenomena seen from a Glass is divided on a diagonal, with the lower area dominated by thin applications of blue and green paint and the upper by an explosion of purple and yellow. The colors resemble overlapping veils that hint at a sense of depth without defining the spatial relationship between them. If there is a narrative here, it involves the story of the work’s creation: the painting is an echo of the very process that made it. Jenkins was responding to contemporary art criticism, which insisted that painters address only issues true to their medium: color, texture, and the flatness of the canvas.

In 1948, psychologist Carl Jung wrote an extended introduction to D.T. Suzuki’s Introduction to Zen Buddhism, a text that became critical reading for artists in the following decades. In Jenkin’s painting, there is a tension between control and chaos that reflects several of the interrelated philosophical beliefs that emerged from this seminal publication. Like many of his contemporaries in New York in the 1950s and 1960s, Jenkin’s strove to remove his conscious ego from the process of creating a work of art. Through a Zen renouncement of self, he attempted to be a vehicle for a universal visual language.

(2015)

Tags:
abstract

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+1970.304.I%28b%29.PI

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.

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