Art, literature & historyPhenomena When I Looked Away
1960
- Dating
- Exact year
- Held at
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Medium
- oil and enamel on canvas
- Dimensions
- Unframed: 197.8 x 157.8 cm (77 7/8 x 62 1/8 in.)
- Collection no.
- 2015.160
- Attribution
- By the artist
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
About this artwork
Phenomena When I Looked Away — Paul Jenkins. 1960.
Medium: oil and enamel on canvas. Dimensions: Unframed: 197.8 x 157.8 cm (77 7/8 x 62 1/8 in.).
Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.
Intermingled pools of vibrant color offset against dusky fields demonstrate Jenkins’s considerable command in manipulating the fluidities of oil and enamel paint in Phenomena When I Looked Away. Its title references the artist’s interest in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s studies in perception, in particular the observation that afterimages persist on the retina when one turns quickly from bright light toward darkness. In fact, Jenkins’s original title for the work was Phenomena When G Looked Away, with “G” alluding to Goethe.
Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.
Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.