Untitled 1968

Look closely at this swirling field of color and you might start to see landscapes that were never actually painted. Soft mountains, glowing valleys, and pools of fiery orange seem to emerge from the flowing pigments. That sense of discovery is exactly what Paul Jenkins was after. An American abstract painter active during the mid twentieth century, Jenkins developed a signature method of pouring thin paint onto canvas and tilting the surface to let gravity guide the colors. He often used an ivory knife instead of a brush to coax the paint into delicate veils and washes.

Jenkins belonged to the broad movement of Abstract Expressionism, though his work feels calmer and more meditative than the wild gestures of many of his peers. He was fascinated by light, water, and the way colors bleed into one another, and he frequently titled his works "Phenomena" to capture that feeling of something happening before your eyes. This untitled piece from 1968 shows him at the height of his pouring technique, with deep blacks and rich reds folding into one another like shifting weather.

There is no right way to read a painting like this. Some viewers see a sunset over rolling hills, others see flowing lava or drifting smoke. Jenkins enjoyed that openness and believed the act of looking was a kind of quiet collaboration between the artwork and the person standing in front of it.