Archives of American Art
Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution
Paul Jenkins Papers 1940-2010
Over 6,200 pieces of correspondence and photographs.
Collection size: 12.3 linear ft.
Extensive correspondence, drawings, writings, photographs, financial material (from the mid to late 50s) and printed material regarding the life and work of abstract expressionist painter Paul Jenkins, including his involvement with the theater.
Correspondence including letters, postcards, invitations, telegrams, faxes and photocopies is with family, colleagues, art dealers, artists and art historians including Dore Ashton, Alice Baber, Norman Bluhm, Beauford Delaney, Jean Dubuffet, David Douglas Duncan, Zoe Dusanne (more than 125 items plus extensive clippings), Albert Elsen, Michael Goldberg, Clement Greenberg, Thomas B. Hess, Philippe Hosiasson, Martha Jackson, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Willem de Kooning, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Sawyer, Irving Sandler, Mark Tobey, Frank Trapp and others.
Sketches and works of art are by Larry Rivers, Mark Tobey, Norman Bluhm, Philippe Hosiasson, Frank Lobdell, Arnold Newman, Thomas Erma, Milton Fox, Matsumi Kanemitsu, N. Hayden Stubbing, Gerard Thalman, Andre Verdet, George Wittenborn, among others. Eight watercolor sketches from 1997 by architect Frank Prince detail a proposed building to adjoin Jenkins' sculpture park, Mandala Meditation Sundial, a portion of which was installed at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York in 1994. Writings include manuscripts by Jenkins and others; travel diaries kept by Jenkins while traveling to China (with extensive drawings, 1988), Russia (1966) and France (1968), and a travel diary kept by Lili Verame, a friend of Jenkins, while traveling to China (circa 1974).
Photographs are of Jenkins, colleagues and exhibition installations. Financial material from the 1950s includes bills and bank statements. Printed material includes press releases, newspaper articles and death notices. Miscellaneous material includes bills of lading and a signed guest book from a 1964 solo exhibition by Jenkins at the Tokyo Gallery.
Correspondence with artist Lynd Ward is also included, together with38 photographs from his woodcut series God's Man.
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