By any means: contemporary drawings from the mORGAN
January 18 - May 12, 2019 The Morgan Library and Museum, New York
includes a 1954 ink drawing on paper

"Not all of the work in “By Any Means” is abstract, but a lot of it is, signaling to its audience the preference of many artists for work that refers to form alone, beyond and outside the human body. Paul Jenkins, the American abstract expressionist painter living in the twentieth century and working both in Paris and New York, contributes a smallish, untitled ink-on-paper work from 1954. It is a model example of the kinds of effects we expect from an artist working in this style: tonal modalities ranging from gray to black, forms that defy a linear outline, no obvious connection to anything recognizable.

Jenkins’ piece epitomizes the free-form, emotionally direct quality so popular in the last century and still today. The drawing is highly dramatic, with a series of vertical pole-like forms, most with rough edging,  jutting upward while being surrounded by amorphous washes that are darker toward the bottom than they are on the sides. There is no figuration being suggested in the composition, which is really about the visual effect of form alone, outside known reference, as well as the tonal complexities achievable with ink by itself. Jenkins may not be as well known as his other New York School colleagues, but an image such as this argues for a permanent place among them.

Jonathan Goodman ART FUSE May 2019
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LOST LOOSE AND LOVED: FOREIGN ARTISTS IN PARIS 1944 - 1968
November 21, 2018 - April 22, 2019
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
includes a 1962 watercolor from the collection of the Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York
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LIGHT, LINE, COLOR AND SPACE UB Anderson Gallery, Buffalo
February 3 - April 15, 2018
Recent acquisitions to the permanent collections. Includes watercolors on paper.
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