The Art Newspaper

Two veteran painters die within a day of each other

The art world loses the American abstract expressionist Paul Jenkins and the French inventor of “lyrical abstraction” George Mathieu

By The Art Newspaper. Web only
Published online: 18 June 2012

Paul Jenkins (left) and Georges Mathieu

Two veteran artists died early this month, within a day of each other.

First, the abstract expressionist painter Paul Jenkins, a friend of Mark Rothko, died on 9 June after a short illness in Manhattan, where he still continued to work, aged 88. Jenkins moved to New York in the 1940s and studied at the Art Students League under the G.I. Bill. He poured paint onto the canvas and spread it, often using an ivory knife, to create waves of colours in his abstract works.

Then on 10 June, the French artist George Mathieu, whose high-speed painting performances were an early kind of “art happening”, died in Paris, aged 91. Mathieu studied law and philosophy in Lille but moved to Paris, also in the 1940s, where he displayed his first work at the “Salon des moins de trente ans”. As well as a painter, Mathieu was a successful graphic designer; he created an Air France advertising campaign and helped design the ten-franc coin.