The paintings of Paul Jenkins have come to represent the spirit, vitality, and invention of post World War II American abstraction. Employing an unorthodox approach to paint application, Jenkins is as much identified with the process of controlled paint-pouring and canvas manipulation as with the gem-like veils of transparent and translucent color which have characterized his work since the late 1950s. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri in 1923, Jenkins later moved to Youngstown, Ohio. Drawn to New York, he became a student of Yasuo Kuniyoshi at the Art Students League and ultimately became associated with the Abstract Expressionists, inspired in part by the "cataclysmic challenge of Pollock and the total metaphysical consumption of Mark Tobey." An ongoing interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, the study of the I Ching, along with the writings of Carl Gustav Jung prompted Jenkins' turn toward inward reflection and mysticism which have dominated his aesthetic as well as his life.

As a teenager Paul Jenkins worked in a ceramics factory where he learned about color variations and form.  Precocious in his art abilities, he became a student at the Kansas City Art Institute from 1937 to 1942, when he was ages 14 to 18.

His interest in and talent for theater earned him a fellowship to the Cleveland Playhouse, and then he went to the Drama School of the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh.  From 1943 to 1945, he served in the U.S. Naval Air Corps during World War II.  Then determining to be an artist, he went to New York City where he studied at the Art Students League from 1948 to 1952 and was influenced the most by instructors Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Morris Kantor. Later, becoming a teacher he was at the Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts in 1986.

In 1953, he went to Paris where he has lived for long periods of time alternating with New York City.  He first studied at the American Artists Center where he began his experiments with pouring paint on canvas in various thicknesses to create a sense of dynamism in the process itself.  For him, each work became a spiritual journey of discovery, and his exposure of white canvas combined with color saturations gave a sense of illumination about his work.

A 1966 film, "The Ivory Knife: Paul Jenkins at Work," focused on his life and his working techniques.