PAUL JENKINS
CAST OF SHADOWS
The collages to me are like diagrams. Burnt parchment maps giving indication of the terrain. Emblems that go back to another ancestral time and mean something I cannot totally explain but can feel as pointing to a place. It would be a long time before collage had an urgency and necessity for me. Paul Jenkins Anatomy of a Cloud Harry N. Abrams, Inc.: New York, 1983, p. 8.
The artist in his Paris atelier, 1986. Photo Mayotte Magnus.
A SECRET CALLING: The Lure of Collage The abstract expressionist painter Paul Jenkins (1923-2012), known for pouring paint in gem-like flows of color onto canvas and paper, had a secret life. His engagement with collage, a lesser-known aspect of his work that evolved since the mid-1950s, is a story in itself. In effect, the collages were part of the artist’s work for many decades and rarely appeared outside his studio until much later. Although Jenkins gave primacy to his paintings and watercolors, the collages remained a source of inspiration and exploration for him, and he actively pursued them at varying degrees in tandem with his work in other media. The intensity of focus and the actual physical demands required of the artist to create his luminous large-scale paintings, as well as the unforgiving spontaneity of watercolor, differ dramatically from the necessities and pace of collage. The collages range from the abstract to works including iconography, calligraphic scripts and printed materials from diverse cultures, primarily Asian, to three-dimensional constructions, mostly of wood. They form a visual atlas of the artist’s mind: a succession of images, thoughts, experiences and objects that the artist held close. All these composite elements function as signposts in a similar way to runes or other mantic tools, or, in the artist’s words, as “path indications, road signs at night.” In his essay for Jenkins’ 1986 exhibition entitled Broken Prisms at Gimpel Weitzenhoffer Gallery in New York, the art historian Frank Anderson Trapp draws particular attention to the impact of collage on Jenkins’ paintings, and quotes the artist: “Collage opened a way of bringing together formal and informal elements that seemed always to be at war. Suddenly the irreconcilable opened up a door that swung wide on its hinges and I was not free from but free to resolve energies that were perpetually countering each other and seemingly at cross purposes. It allowed me to perceive paint more thickly in layers of sensation. The surface and sensation suddenly amalgamated, came forth and substantiated each other. The emphasis could be discovered in the paint itself.” This exhibition is the first presentation in the UK of a group of Jenkins’ collages and is comprised of 17 works on canvas and paper of varying dimensions, with the majority dating from 1991 to 1995. A Road Map of the collage elements including examples of early and later atelier collages as well as other collage projects, is found in the appended Atlas.
A LOOK BACK During his initial sojourn in Paris in 1953, Jenkins created his first collage: Egyptian Profile, a work in gouache and ink on papyrus mounted on canvas, that he described as both a “personal Rosetta Stone,” and a “talisman of the mind.” This work, as seen in the appended Atlas, was shown the following year in Jenkins’ first solo exhibition that took place in Paris at Studio Facchetti. In the catalogue text “Ceremonial Tenses” for the 1994-95 exhibition in New York, Jenkins recalls a key experience from that decisive year:
“The necessity of collage drew me into its net in 1953 when I was walking past the Cluny Museum. What came to my mind were these little lead prayer objects which were cast into the Seine and then portions were recovered and shown. What did they mean, these vestiges of the past? They gave off psychic energy and mystery. Nothing is forgotten, it is released into space and then reeled back in by some primordial necessity.” In his 1973 monograph on Jenkins published in New York by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., the art historian Albert E. Elsen points to the significance of the artist’s early period of 1953 in Paris, citing Jenkins’ continued fascination with Egyptian art — existing since his childhood visits to the Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, and heightened by the Louvre — as well as the artist’s discovery and acquisition of the Manga by Hokusai, the ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Jenkins was drawn to Hokusai’s “affirmation of the immensity and endless possibilities within one world which was consistent unto itself.” Hokusai furthered Jenkins’ interest in Japanese art already manifest with the three watercolors he painted in 1944 based on woodblock prints of Kabuki actors. Elsen writes: “In the summer of 1953, Jenkins was working in Paris with watercolor, as well as with oil and enamel. A garage served him as a studio, and under the influence of Hokusai and Wols, he created his ‘scrolls’.” Jenkins’ choice of papyrus for the ground of Egyptian Profile was prescient. After observing the “fused color absorbed by the papyrus” on which this work was painted, Elsen quotes the artist that this result manifested the “veil” as a substance “you could see into, like the Flemings’ use of cool on top of warm and warm over cool colors.” Elsen also remarked on the presence of “the profile head which occurs with a kind of Egyptian consistency in the works of 1953 through 1955.” In 1954, Jenkins acquired an atelier in the 14th arrondissement of Paris where he began to make abstract collages with paper fragments on interior doors. He also created in situ a two-sided collaged interior partition, later called by the artist alternatively Hokusai Arch or Hokusai Portal — referring to its collaged Japanese woodblock prints — or Decrès Arch—referring to the location of the artist’s atelier. Marseilles Tarot cards and other imagery were also included. Ellen Fischer, curator of Broken Silences, the artist’s collage retrospective in 2000-2001, writes in the exhibition catalogue that during the 1950s not only was Jenkins “discovering how to combine various elements in collage, he was also experimenting with different types of paint, often combining oil, enamel, and powdered pigments on the same canvas.” An ivory knife that Jenkins acquired as a gift in 1958 soon became an essential tool in guiding the flow of poured paint in his works. Throughout the year of 1960, Jenkins transitioned from working in oil to acrylic, a critical passage that, in conjunction with the ivory knife, had long-ranging ramifications. Although collages were mostly absent from this decade, Jenkins created ink collages on paper for the wraparound covers for the publication of his play, Strike the Puma, printed in 1966 by Éditions Gonthier in Paris. In the mid-1970s, collages began to reclaim part of Jenkins’ attention. In the preparation of the 1973 monograph with a text by Albert E. Elsen, the artist proposed a series of autobiographical montages which were later excluded from that publication. Throughout the remainder of the 1970s, elements from these montages gradually integrated themselves into the larger, expanded collages of what became the monograph Anatomy of a Cloud, published in 1983 by Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
In itself a work of art created entirely by Jenkins, Anatomy of a Cloud was in actuality the first major presentation of his collages to the outside world. In this wide-ranging publication, often called by the artist A Book of Guides, the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham and the French actor and theatre director Jean-Louis Barrault stand out as important figures. In his text entitled Living Emblem, Jenkins decribes his early encounter with Barrault: “When I was at the Art Students League, I saw Jean-Louis Barrault’s Les Enfants du Paradis, which opened a door for me. Barrault pointed to a way of movement that was not romantic but rather, metaphysical. It was a paradox — the still center and the ever-moving circle.” In his text The Driven Image, also from Anatomy of a Cloud, Jenkins traces the story of his seeing for the first time in 1943 Barbara Morgan’s iconic image of Martha Graham in “Lamentation.” Jenkins refers to Martha Graham’s rendering ideas “through images you could cut out with a surgeon’s knife” and then cites from her Affirmations 1926-1937. A worn copy of the 1937 publication by Merle Armitage entitled Martha Graham including the Affirmations remains in the library of the Jenkins Estate. The appended Atlas contains further documentation and historical details surrounding Anatomy of a Cloud. Collages of Jean-Louis Barrault ensued, as well as the collages of Eastern Remnants, also called Tibetan Remnants, together with collages referencing the 19th century Goncourt Brothers and their passion for Japanese woodblock prints. In the late 1980s-early 1990s, Jenkins created Conjunctions and Annexes, a series of polyptychs, including several with collage elements, for his 1991 exhibition in New York. Grid Panel Prisms, a further series of polyptychs, followed. These works are characterized in the main by the addition of panels attached in various configurations: flanking the central panel, above the central image, along the side, from below and in other combinations. In this exhibition, the triptych, Phenomena Stalk the Feldspar, includes a painted abstract element collaged onto the central panel with canvases positioned on either side in varying alignments. In the publication for the New York exhibition, the artist expands on his intentions: “My necessity is to make the parts seen and to keep them independent at that junction, joining, conjunction or annex...and to emphasize the independence of the aligned elements. These elements differ in climate and temperature but yield to an interpenetrated differentiated terrain of areas of non-alternate color.” Although subsequent exhibitions evidence the predominance of Jenkins’ paintings and watercolors, they also reveal his longstanding dialogue with collage. The 2014 exhibition of Jenkins’ work at the Redfern Gallery included several of the artist’s collages both on canvas and on paper, as well as a construction in wood. Phenomena Sound of Moon Bowl, 1987-89, a triptych in acrylic on canvas from Conjunctions and Annexes, was on view in the Redfern’s 2018 exhibition. For that catalogue, the art historian Gail Levin explored Jenkins’ Asian influences in her text entitled “Paul Jenkins, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Asian Affinities,” which illustrated three of the artist’s collages as well as Hokusai Portal. Over time, the collages have revealed themselves to be an essential dimension of the artist’s life and work, bringing forward unexpected aspects that would otherwise be left hidden. The historian Paul Veyne, in his essay “Silk Steeped in the Balm of Time” for the artist’s 1993 Paris exhibition of collages, succinctly encapsulates Jenkins’ work in this medium: “Someone said that of all places on earth, Rome was unique, the only city in the world that nature, passing centuries and chance had formed as well as an artist who creates willfully and deliberately. The juxtaposition of ruins and fragments of every age made a masterful collage, a work both harmonious and structured. Paul Jenkins’ collages are reminiscent of the haunting beauty of Rome.”
Phenomena I Ching Change 1992 acrylic and collage on canvas 198 x 147.5 cm 78 x 58 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-MusÊe Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 57.
THE DRAGON’S MASK The dragon is said never to be the same. The secret of knowledge was to penetrate beyond the mask that change imposed upon things. So-called facts and forms were merely incidents beneath which the real life lay hidden. Paul Jenkins Anatomy of a Cloud New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., p. 152.
Phenomena Enigma Meets Twice 1995 acrylic and collage on canvas 130 x 97 cm 51.25 x 38.25 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-Musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995.
THE ORANGE SPECTER Prior to coming to Peking Beijing I saw in my mind’s eye the “Orange That Kills” but since I have been here it is a color which either no longer exists or was always the product of the imagination. A color which let us say became lost in the coal culture land stripping necessity. I will now quietly persist in watching out after it. But, yesterday when I had to come back to my hotel because I forgot something. Yesterday May 28, 1988 when I returned to the Chinese Theatre in the elite military compound, the driver took me by a route I could not remember. The gradual hallucination built up he was not a good driver but he would get me there. I was not worried, I was waiting. But then that astonished unexpected specter. Now I have the excited chill of recollection. She, the elemental She The Orange Specter. Woman walking without fear diagonally across the street, a Peking thoroughfare, holding bicycle handles and over her intentioned face an orange sorbet net gauze veil. Across a face fearless as death on a pale horse. I inwardly knew what force this creature had and I smiled back in recognition. I had met death in passing in Peking. Heraclitus said, “If we do not expect the unexpected, we will never find it.” Paul Jenkins 1988 Beijing China Notebook
Phenomena Dream By West and East 1992 acrylic and collage on paper 134 x 86.5 cm 52.75 x 34 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-Musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 46.
TAO TE CHING From the standpoint of poetry they are masterpieces in simplicity. I feel kindred to these beliefs...for they are eternally immediate. They are the here and now, and do not believe in an attempt to describe the eternal. “Not That Which Can be Expressed. The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be defined is not the unchanged name.” It is highly idealistic but I can recall so much reference and example where it is profoundly true.
Paul Jenkins writing about the Tao Te Ching of Lao-tze in a letter sent from the US Navy Air Corps in Chincoteague, Virginia, December 5, 1945. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Paul Jenkins Papers.
Phenomena Tao Ladder 1992-93 acrylic and collage on canvas 173 x 103 cm 68 x 40.5 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-Musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 83.
VISIT TO ISE It was thanks to Joseph Campbell that I had the profound experience of seeing Ise. Before I left New York City [traveling to Japan in 1964], he strongly suggested that I visit this spiritual place. To the Shinto religion, the jewel, the sword, and the mirror were the important emblems of meaning, and not painting and sculpture. The symmetry of Ise in relation to the cultivated, but at the same time informal, nature was magnificent. I spoke to Bernard Leach about it — he was in Japan at that time — and I also wrote to Mark Tobey about Ise’s simplicity and its obstinate lack of need for works of art — contrary to Buddha temples where sculpture and painting were in abundance. Paul Jenkins Anatomy of a Cloud Harry N. Abrams, Inc.: New York 1983, p. 153.
Phenomena Degree of Ascent 1994 acrylic, collage and wood on paper mounted on panel 77 x 56.5 cm 30.25 x 22.25 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-Musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 12.
Phenomena The Sacred Place 1994 acrylic and collage with wood 77 x 56.5 cm 30.25 x 22.25 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-MusÊe Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 14.
Phenomena Marco Polo in Milano 1991 acrylic and collage on canvas 67 x 50 cm 26.5 x 19.75 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-MusÊe Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 61.
Phenomena Gioconda in Hell 1995 acrylic and collage on canvas 101.6 x 75.9 cm 40 x 29.9 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins on Canvas and Paper 1989-2009. Redfern Gallery, London, 2014, catalogue ill. p. 75.
THE TYGER William Blake
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies. Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet? What the hammer? what the chain, In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp! When the stars threw down their spears And water’d heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? Phenomena Night Symmetry 1994 acrylic and collage on paper mounted on panel 77 x 56.5 cm 30.25 x 22.25 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-Musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 13.
Phenomena When Rivers Was Green 1992 acrylic and collage on paper 56.5 x 75 cm 22.25 x 29.5 inches
Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-MusÊe Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 60.
Phenomena Sound of Om 1991 acrylic, wood and collage on canvas 111 x 246 cm 43.75 x 97 inches
Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-MusÊe Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. pp. 70-71.
CONJUNCTIONS AND ANNEXES Most diptychs, triptychs or polyptychs are extensions of the same thing. Something made bigger by attachment of more of the same thing to make a larger totality. Most are based principally on the thought of the harmonious whole. Each panel does not clash but coincides with that adjacent to it, serving the larger scale work which could be painted as well on an uninterrupted surface instead of a fragmented expanse. Although the subject matter in each panel could be differentiated, the unison of the whole is evident. They are logical works of expansion which could be one finite painting in the same sense a Japanese screen is made larger by bringing together contiguous elements. Screens and the sensible reason to make a painting larger and at the same time manageable is not my intention at all. My necessity is to make the parts seen and to keep them independent at that junction, joining, conjunction or annex...and to emphasize the independence of the aligned elements. These elements differ in climate and temperature but yield to an interpenetrated differentiated terrain of areas of non-alternate color. The internal and the external being in constant interchange, co-existence and convergence of opposites opening an arena of further possibility. One annex intensifies the other, the joining gives more separate strength to each element. Different compartments of the seen. Constructed elements of color, and to make the thing seen. In their opposition to each other, however, the elements are fundamentally linked. They share the same kind of force and impact. They are not continuations or extensions and yet are not incongruous. Paul Jenkins Conjunctions and Annnexes 1991 Phenomena Stalk the Feldspar 1977-90 Triptych, acrylic on canvas Overall 246.4 x 195.6 cm 97 x 77 inches Exhibited Œuvres Majeures. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, 2005, catalogue ill. n. pag. Paul Jenkins: Collages Peintures. Château-Musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 77. Conjunctions and Annexes. Gimpel Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, 1991. Exhibition publication: English edition, ill. n. pag. Also ill. French edition [Conjonctions et Annexes], n. pag. Paris: Éditions Galilée, 1991.
Phenomena A King There Was A King There Is 1992 acrylic and collage on canvas 61 x 76 cm 24 x 30 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-MusÊe Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 59.
Phenomena Threshold of the Mortal Egyptians I, II, III 1994 acrylic and collage with wood on paper mounted on panel Each panel 77 x 56.5 cm 30.25 x 22.25 inches Overall 76 x 169.5 cm 30 x 66.75 inches
Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages Cagnes-sur-mer, Franc
s-Peintures. Château-MusÊe Grimaldi, ce, 1995, catalogue ill. pp. 26-27.
Phenomena Once Was 1992-93 acrylic on wood with gold leaf 60 x 105 cm 23.5 x 41.25 inches
Exhibited Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-MusÊe Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 80.
Phenomena Compass Window 1992 acrylic on canvas tondo 149.9 cm 59 inches diameter stretcher 180.3 x 165 cm 71 x 65 inches Exhibited Paul Jenkins on Canvas and Paper 1989-2009. Redfern Gallery, London, 2014, catalogue ill. p. 77. Ĺ’uvres Majeures. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, 2005, catalogue ill. n. pag. Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Chateau-MusĂŠe Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, 1995, catalogue ill. p. 79.
ATLAS I Selected Early Collages Egyptian Profile 1953 Atelier Doors Anatomy of a Cloud More Atelier Doors
II Road Map to the Collages More on Egyptian Profile References Cited
III Collage Exhibitions IV Selected Collage Literature V Acknowledgements
Egyptian Profile 1953 gouache and ink on papyrus mounted on canvas 119 x 62 cm 46.9 x 24.4 inches Private Collection
THE EGYPTIANS Egyptian art was an early and continuing significant influence in the artist’s life. Looking back, Jenkins wrote in a 1946 letter that as a young boy he “used to pour over an immense book that was filled with Egyptian art.” This interest was furthered during childhood visits to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, as well as during later visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City when he visited his Aunt Louise. In a 1953 letter, the artist mentions seeing Egyptian pieces in a museum in Siracusa during his lengthy stay in Taormina, Sicily, before arriving in Paris later that same year. As Albert E. Elsen wrote in his 1973 monograph on the artist, the Louvre revived Jenkins’ fascination with Egyptian art. In fact, Jenkins acquired many black and white gravure photographs of Egyptian sculpture from Parisian photographic sources. Many of these images appear in Anatomy of a Cloud [published in 1983 by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York] both as full-page illustrations and also as elements of the photograph-montages made by the artist for the book’s layout. Those images are: Egyptian Sculptor, the Temple of Hathor at Dendera in Egypt where Jenkins quotes The Book of the Dead, and the Sarcophagus of the Lady Tent-Hapi with goddess of Amenti [plates 45, 77, 154], together with the photograph-montages entitled Profile of the King and Tomorrow, Today and Yesterday [plates 78, 79]. Apparent to Jenkins was the correlation between Egyptian art and Noh theatre. In a July 13, 1957 letter written in Paris, he describes working on an abstract painting inspired by the Noh. In the letter, Jenkins remarks on the way Noh actors walk forward on stage and “by tipping their bodies slightly forward give the unbelievable sense of monumentality. And the time sense of going to and having been from is wonderful. All at the same time. Egyptian art achieves that spell sometimes.” This aspect of monumentality remained with Jenkins throughout his life and is clearly seen in the triptych Thresholds of the Mortal Egyptians I, II, III, included in this exhibition, evoking what, in a 1985 letter, the artist called the “inner stillness of the dark basalt Egyptian stones.” Letters: Paul Jenkins Papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
The artist in Paris with Egyptian Profile, 1953.
Both sides of the partition include images of Japanese art, including woodblock prints, painted screens, scrolls and sculpture. A fourarmed wrathful deity is shown on the lower front part of the partition. The reverse has built-in shelves with a small cabinet in the lower right section collaged with an image of Japanese fusuma doors as well as paper fragments. Also featured on the reverse are cards from the Marseilles Tarot.
Hokusai Arch [Hokusai Portal, Decrès Arch] Paris 1954-58, 1997 collage on wood 243.8 x 170 x 25.4 cm 96 x 67 x 10 inches Exhibited Broken Silences: The Collages of Paul Jenkins. Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida, 2000-2001. Literature Broken Silences: The Collages of Paul Jenkins. Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida, 2000-2001, catalogue ill. pp. 4, 6. Paul Jenkins: Paintings and Works on Paper 1984-2010. Redfern Gallery, London, 2018, catalogue ill. p. 10.
Abstract paper fragments overall together with Japanese woodblock prints on the lower door left and with Japanese calligraphy lower door right.
Atelier interior doors, Paris [5 panels] mixed media on wood Left [blue edges] 160 x 75 cm 63 x 29.5 inches Above right 2 doors, each door 128 x 88 cm 50.5 x 34.5 inches Below right 2 doors, each door 50 x 81 cm 19.75 x 22 inches Exhibited Broken Silences: The Collages of Paul Jenkins. Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida, 2000-2001, catalogue checklist nos. 4-7. Paul Jenkins Collages-Peintures. Château-MusÊe Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995, catalogue ill. pp. 82, 87.
ANATOMY OF A CLOUD
The artist with Albert E. Elsen in his office at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, c. 1970. Photo Leo Holub.
As mentioned in the introductory text, A Secret Calling: The Lure of Collage, the artist envisioned a series of autobiographical montages for the monograph published in 1973 by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. with an in-depth text written by the distinguished art historian, Albert E. Elsen. Later excluded from that publication, these preliminary elements are shown above in photostat form, aligned along the wall of Elsen’s office. Throughout the remainder of the 1970s, elements from these montages gradually integrated themselves into the larger, expanded autobiographical collages shown in the 1983 monograph entitled Anatomy of a Cloud, also published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Two key early collages in this publication are Horizon Findings (1973) and Boy Man Man Boy (1976), both works on paper.
Jenkins conceived of Anatomy of a Cloud as a totality that could be described as a collage work of art in and of itself. This included the creation, choice and placement of all images in a flowing dialogue, along with texts written by the artist. For the layout, Jenkins made an extensive series of photographmontages as introductory and transitional visual elements realized through photography. This is not unlike the process Jenkins used to create the photostats as shown in the photograph of the artist with Albert E. Elsen. For Anatomy of a Cloud, Jenkins placed the collage components in a defined configuration, without fixing the elements permanently to the underlying support. This arrangement was then photographed. After the photography, the artist disassembled the various components, leaving the photograph as the final form of the montage. In Anatomy of A Cloud, the artist gave titles to these photograph-montages. Below are three examples (plates 67, 62 and 50).
Empire Noh Mask 1981 Anatomy of a Cloud 1983 plate 67
The Eye of the Intervening Space 1981 Anatomy of a Cloud 1983 plate 62
Kendo Cut 1981 Anatomy of a Cloud 1983 plate 50
Collaged by the artist in situ at his former atelier on Broadway acquired in November of 1963. Outside view (right): Overall component an East Asian map, most likely Japanese, with the map’s legend at the bottom.
Inside view (left): Overall fragmented elements of landscapes, water and architectural details. Left of center is the distinctive image of a baku, an East Asian mythical creature known to devour dreams and nightmares, and having the trunk of an elephant, the tail of an ox and the paws of a tiger. Other visible details include: A red crescent moon, a red-rimmed sun partially visible, clouds, dragons, another smaller baku, a shishi [lion dog], birds, flowers and other fantastical creatures.
New York Atelier Interior Door post 1963-64 collage on wood, recto verso 199.4 x 61 cm 78.50 x 24 inches
Created on four panels, this collage contains various materials including two works by Jenkins (an acrylic collage on canvas and an ink on paper), three original Persian manuscript pages, sheets from a facsimile of Gauguin’s Noa Noa, images of Japanese art including an original Japanese woodblock print, images of William Blake’s The Ancient of Days and Barbara Morgan’s photograph of Martha Graham in “Lamentation,” together with diverse other objects. Jenkins’ description of Martha Graham in Anatomy of a Cloud is significant: In 1943, I first saw the line of her [Martha Graham’s] unique individuality at a small cultural center in Pittsburgh called “Outlines” on the top floor of the Pittsburgh Playhouse. My eye caught sight of a handsomely sized book on Martha Graham with photographs by Barbara Morgan. I still can’t distill or decide how it changed my life, but the picture of Martha Graham in “Lamentation” did change my life. Paul Jenkins Anatomy of a Cloud 1983, pp. 82-84. In 1945, Jenkins made a graphite drawing on illustration board inspired by this photograph. When Jenkins settled in New York in 1948, Martha Graham allowed him to attend her classes to observe her teaching, after which he made two more graphite drawings of her, very different in feeling from the 1945 drawing. Much later, Jenkins and Martha Graham greeted each other from across the theatre at a Noh performance in Tokyo c. 1990. New York Interior Door, post 1979 mixed media on wood 4 folding panels of 2 each 2 panels 215.9 x 119.4 cm 85 x 47 inches
Interior of front door, post 1987 mixed media on wood, 5 panels
Images from diverse sources including ink drawings by the artist, an image of the Zen rock garden at RyĹ?an-ji temple in Kyoto and a black and white photograph of the artist in his atelier from the series Incantations against the Light.
The artist in Bedoin, France, 1993. Photo ŠSuzanne Donnelly Jenkins.
ROAD MAP: WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION PHENOMENA CAST OF SHADOW 1995 A long textile is positioned within a heavily painted canvas amalgamating the analogous colors of yellow and green as well as interpenetrations of white and red. PHENOMENA I CHING CHANGE 1992 Left of center above: A manuscript page with Chinese characters. Lower left of center: a work in ink by the artist on a square format. Lower right: other rectangular and square works painted by the artist. PHENOMENA ENIGMA MEETS TWICE 1995 An image of an actor wearing a Peking Opera mask. Diagram of the human figure with chakras. Cover of a book entitled “Priestess of the Occult.” Program cover from a 1995 Noh theatre performance. Image of an imperial five-clawed dragon pursuing a flaming jewel. Wood and iron elements. PHENOMENA DREAM BY WEST AND EAST 1992 Left of center above: Image of a woman riding a bicycle with a transparent fabric covering her face. When the artist was in Peking during the spring of 1988, he saw bicycle riders wearing a sheer voile-like textile to protect their faces from the sands of the Gobi Desert being carried in on the wind. Left of center: Reproduction of seated wood sculpture of Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), Tokyo National Museum, Japan. Right of center: Image of a Japanese print by the 19th century printmaker Kunisada (1786-1865), also known as Toyokuni III, portraying the Kabuki actor, Ichikawa Ebizo, whose name is written in Japanese characters within the column above his right shoulder. Also written in Japanese characters within the column is what appears to be the name of the role Ichikawa Ebizo is playing: Tanigawa Gohichi. The print portrays the actor on stage frozen in the heightened posture of the “mie” where he crosses his eyes, a distinctive element of Kabuki performances often rendered in woodcuts. PHENOMENA TAO LADDER 1992-93 Left of center: Print by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) acquired by the artist in Paris, A Shoal of Fish: Abalone, Needlefish (halfbeak) and Peach Blossoms (c. 1832-33). Collage elements painted by the artist are affixed to the canvas surface, together with a smaller collage work on canvas, also by the artist. PHENOMENA DEGREE OF ASCENT 1994 The wooden arch placed by the artist within the collage evokes a Japanese torii, a widely recognized Shinto symbol that defines the barrier between what is sacred and secular. The image of a man holding aloft a fan is most probably from the Jidai Matsuri, a festival in Kyoto chronicling Japan’s past where participants dress as significant historical figures. This central figure — identified by the four characters written on the wooden cartouche — represents Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), a powerful feudal lord who unified Japan during the Momoyama period (1573-1615). The rounded golden globes above the fan represent gourds, lucky objects favored by Hideyoshi. Image of Omar Sharif and Peter O’Toole in the film Lawrence of Arabia.
ROAD MAP: WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION PHENOMENA THE SACRED PLACE 1994 Center: color reproduction of a 1993 watercolor on paper by the artist, Phenomena Mount Ventoux. The titles of this watercolor and the collage refer to a mountain in the Provence region of Southern France visited by the artist during his travels to the Vaucluse to see his friend, Paul Veyne, a French historian and honorary professor of the Collège de France living in Bedoin, a nearby village at the base of the mountain. PHENOMENA MARCO POLO IN MILANO 1991 Fan from the 1881 Esposizione Nazionale Industriale di Milano. “Le Japonais,” woodblock print of a Japanese male actor wearing a typical “pate cover.” Small Chinese circular mirror. PHENOMENA GIOCONDA IN HELL 1995 The Gioconda of the title references the ‘portrait’ painted by the artist on a small canvas that is then collaged onto the larger work, with heavy impasto evoking fire. PHENOMENA NIGHT SYMMETRY 1995 A tiger, likely Asian, is centrally positioned on a scroll that unfolds horizontally across the collage surface, demarcated by the vertical scroll bar wrapped in brocade on the left. The black fluid paint applied by the artist surrounds the tiger within the darkness of the night, as in the poem The Tyger by William Blake. PHENOMENA WHEN RIVERS WAS GREEN 1992 Fragments of Japanese calligraphy and prints. A title page from the publication The Philosophy of Andy Warhol dedicated to Paul Jenkins and signed by Andy Warhol. Wrapping from a pack of Camel cigarettes [the brand smoked by Jenkins at the time] held in place by masking tape and signed [Larry] “Rivers ’62” and inscribed by Rivers to Jenkins: “Paul is mad.” A calendar page dated January 16, 1962, with handwritten notes by Paul Jenkins: “Review Ashbury Park Herald Tribune” and noting a 6:30-7:00 meeting with Larry Rivers later that day. Inclusion of a 20 [French] franc note with the image of Claude Debussy. The green in the title refers to the artist Larry Rivers in a field of green, and could also refer to the American vernacular term for money as represented by the collaged French Franc note. PHENOMENA SOUND OF OM 1991 Lower left: an ovular form or circle in ink painted by the artist evoking the Zen tradition of ensō. The various abstract elements are juxtaposed with painted stretchers and frames, and with the work’s title referring to the Om, a sacred sound and spiritual symbol in Indian religions.
ROAD MAP: WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION PHENOMENA STALK THE FELDSPAR 1977-90 Triptych from Conjunctions and Annexes with a large central panel flanked by a canvas on either side positioned asymmetrically: the side panels have different vertical measurements and rise above the central canvas at different heights. The central image contains a large painted textile collaged diagonally across a ground of interpenetrating poured paint of varying colors and textures. PHENOMENA A KING THERE WAS A KING THERE IS 1992 Image of a Chinese Buddhist guardian figure in stone in the upper left of a canvas surface heavily painted by the artist and with a partially visible detail of the creation of Adam, from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. PHENOMENA THRESHOLD OF THE MORTAL EGYPTIANS I, II, III 1994 Triptych with three wood elements, two painted by the artist, together with black and white photographs of Egyptian statues in stone, on a black ground. Egyptian art was an important early and continuing influence in the artist’s life and is explored at greater length with the artist’s first collage, Egyptian Profile 1953, in the appended Atlas. PHENOMENA ONCE WAS 1992-93 A series of gilded elements including wood finials together with carved scallop shell and leaf reliefs within a wooden encasement with mixed media interventions. PHENOMENA COMPASS WINDOW 1992 A tondo with acrylic on canvas mounted by the artist on a square wooden stretcher.
Paul Jenkins in his atelier on the rue Decrès in Paris collaging additional elements to the inside of an interior door. Hokusai Arch [Hokusai Portal, Decrès Arch] is partially visible to the artist’s right.
MORE ON EGYPTIAN PROFILE 1953 Exhibited Broken Silences: The Collages of Paul Jenkins. Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida, 2000-2001. Paul Jenkins: Œuvres 1956-1986. Musée Picasso, Antibes, 1987. Paul Jenkins: World of Phenomena 1951-1980. Palm Springs Museum of Art, Palm Springs, California, 1981. Literature Broken Silences: The Collages of Paul Jenkins. Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida, 2000-2001. Text Ellen Fischer. Exhibition catalogue, checklist no. 1. Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-Musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France. Exhibition catalogue, ill. p. 69 [not in the exhibition]. Paul Jenkins: Œuvres 1956-1986. Musée Picasso, Antibes, 1987, ill. p. 44. Anatomy of a Cloud. Paul Jenkins with Suzanne Donnelly Jenkins. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1983, ill. p. 9, plate 6. Paul Jenkins. Monograph. Text Albert E. Elsen. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1973, ill. Plate 155.
REFERENCES CITED Fischer, Ellen. Broken Silences: The Collages of Paul Jenkins. Vero Beach Museum of Art, 2000-2001. Exhibition catalogue, ill. Levin, Gail. “Paul Jenkins, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Asian Affinities.” Paul Jenkins Paintings and Works on Paper 1984-2010. Redfern Gallery, London, 2018, ill. Paul Jenkins: Collages-Peintures. Château-Musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995. Exhibition catalogue, ill. Hagani, Lisa. “Ceremonial Tenses—The Collage Paintings.” Paul Jenkins: Collage-Paintings. Exhibition catalogue, Associated American Artists, New York, 1994-95, ill. Veyne, Paul. “Silk Steeped in the Balm of Time—Soie au Baume de Temps.” Paul Jenkins. Yoshii Gallery, Paris, 1993. Exhibition brochure, ill. Bonafoux, Pascal. Conjunctions and Annexes. Paris: Éditions Galilée, 1991, ill. Separate editions in English and French [Conjonctions et Annexes]. Trapp, Frank Anderson. Paul Jenkins Broken Prisms. Gimpel Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, 1986. Exhibition catalogue, ill. Jenkins, Paul with Suzanne Donnelly Jenkins. Anatomy of a Cloud. Monograph. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1983, ill. Elsen, Albert E. Paul Jenkins. Monograph. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1973, ill.
COLLAGE EXHIBITIONS 2000s Broken Silences. Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida, 2000-2001. 1990s Paul Jenkins: Collage-Paintings. Château-Musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-mer, France, 1995. Hommage à Jean-Louis Barrault. La Maison Française, New York University, New York, 1994-1995. Paul Jenkins: The Collage Paintings. Associated American Artists, New York, 1994. Vancouver Collects. Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada, 1993. Paul Jenkins, Yoshii Gallery, Paris, 1993. Conjunctions and Annexes. Gimpel Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, 1991. Prism Grid Panels. Gimpel Fils, London, 1991. 1980s White Shadows in a Dark Hall. Gimpel Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, 1988. Anatomy of a Cloud. The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, 1986. Paul Jenkins. Musée d’Art Contemporain, Dunkirk, France, 1984. Tibetan Remnants and Autobiographical Collage Paintings. Alex Rosenberg Gallery, New York. Hommage à Jean-Louis Barrault. French Cultural Services of the French Embassy, New York, 1981. 1970s Anatomy of a Cloud. Gimpel Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, 1978. 1960s New Forms — New Media I. Martha Jackson Galley, New York, 1960.
Works from Anatomy of a Cloud in the artist’s studio, New York, 1978.
SELECTED COLLAGE LITERATURE By the Artist Jenkins, Paul with Suzanne Donnelly Jenkins. Anatomy of a Cloud. Monograph. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1983, ill. Jenkins, Paul. Anatomy of a Cloud. Statement by the artist, Gimpel Weitzenhoffer, New York, 1978. Exhibition catalogue, ill. Jenkins, Paul. Strike the Puma. Paris: Éditions Gonthier, 1966.
Bonafoux, Pascal. Conjunctions and Annexes. Paris: Éditions Galilée, 1991, ill. Separate editions in English and French [Conjonctions et Annexes]. Faucher, Michel. Paul Jenkins. Exhibition catalogue, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Dunkirk, France, 1984, ill. Fischer, Ellen. Broken Silences: The Collages of Paul Jenkins. Exhibition catalogue, Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida, 2000-2001, ill. Friedman, B. H. “Autobiography as Collage, Collage as Autobiography,” Arts, December 1983, vol. 58, no. 4, ill. Frimbois, Jean-Pierre. “Le Soleil ne se couche pas sur Manhattan...” Art Actuel, March-April 2000, ill. Garelli, Jacques. Rayons des Couleurs Fondamentales. Excerpts, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Proarta, Zurich, 1995, ill. Hagani, Lisa. “Ceremonial Tenses: The Collage-Paintings.” Paul Jenkins: Collage-Paintings. Exhibition catalogue, Associated American Artists, New York, 1993-1994, ill. Persin, Patrick-Gilles. “Paul Jenkins Collages.” L’Oeil, September 1993, no. 454, ill. Veyne, Paul. “Silk Steeped in the Balm of Time—Soie au Baume de Temps.” Paul Jenkins. Yoshii Gallery, Paris, 1993. Exhibition catalogue, ill. Zimmer, William. White Shadows in a Dark Hall. Gimpel Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, 1988. Exhibition catalogue, ill.
Phenomena Stalk the Feldspar in the artist’s studio in New York, 1990.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Title page Phenomena Cast of Shadow 1991 acrylic and textile on canvas 146 x 114.3 cm 57.5 x 45 inches All works of art and texts ©Estate of Paul Jenkins Documentation and texts Suzanne Donnelly Jenkins The Estate of Paul Jenkins extends thanks to Martha Blackwelder and Sandra Olsen for their contributions on entering the labyrinthine world of Paul’s collages. Design Laura McRitchie Conception Suzanne Donnelly Jenkins For the Online Exhibition Paul Jenkins: Cast of Shadows May 11 – July 11, 2020 This compendium may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic of mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any other information storage or retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the Estate of Paul Jenkins, the Redfern Gallery and the copyright owners.
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