Phenomena Sooth Sayer

This large-scale work by Paul Jenkins (170 × 120 cm) represents one of the most significant examples of the artist’s mature period and testifies to the fundamental role he played in the international abstract art scene of the second half of the twentieth century.

Jenkins was in fact one of the most important artists of lyrical abstraction, a movement that developed between Europe and the United States after the Second World War and sought to express emotions, energy and spirituality through color and the movement of painting.

Although he was born in the United States, Jenkins also worked for a long time in Paris, coming into contact with European artists and intellectuals, this dual cultural belonging contributed to making his painting recognizable and appreciated internationally, so much so that his works are now preserved in the most important museums in the world.

One of the most innovative characteristics of Jenkins’s painting is his particular way of using color, he did not apply paint with the traditional gesture of the brush, but poured the color onto the canvas allowing it to flow freely across the surface and, through the inclination of the canvas and the use of unconventional tools,
Jenkins guided the movement of the chromatic material without completely controlling it.

In the work “Phenomena Sooth Sayer” color is the true protagonist, on a light background a large fluid and luminous form emerges in which different tones blend together: the intense red at the center, surrounded by shades of pink, gradually merges with greens, yellows and blues that expand upward and toward the right side of the canvas, the colors dissolve into one another, creating an effect of continuity and movement.

An interesting element of the composition is represented by the thin dark lines that cross the canvas vertically with a curved movement, these lines create a contrast with the softness of the chromatic fields and introduce a visual rhythm that guides the viewer’s gaze across the entire surface of the painting, they almost seem like traces of movement or signs of energy that pass through the pictorial space, reinforcing the sense of dynamism present in the work.

The title contributes significantly to the reading of the painting, Jenkins often used the word “Phenomena” in the titles of his works to indicate that his paintings do not represent recognizable objects or landscapes, but rather visual phenomena, events of color and light that manifest themselves on the canvas, while the term “Sooth Sayer” can be translated as “seer” or “prophet”, instead suggesting a more spiritual and intuitive dimension.

The dimensions of the work also play a fundamental role in the visual experience, with its 170 centimeters in height, the painting has a monumental presence that directly involves the viewer, the large scale allows the colors to expand freely and to create a broad and immersive visual field.

The work demonstrates how Jenkins was able to develop an original and deeply poetic pictorial language, capable of uniting gesture, light and intuition in a form of abstraction that had an important resonance at the international level.