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Bill Jensen: b. 1945

Bill Jensen b. 1945

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  • Overview
    View works. Bill Jensen
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    Bill Jensen (born 1945 Minneapolis) came into prominence in the late 1970s in New York City. His work was exhibited at the New Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, at the Whitney Museum of American Art including 1981 Whitney Biennial, and the Museum of Modern Art. Recently, his work was shown at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in conjunction with its Albert Pinkham Ryder exhibition in 2021, and at MoMA PS1 in New York in 2016. Jensen earned his BFA and MFA from the University of Minnesota in 1968 and 1970, and relocated to New York City in 1971. He has lived and worked in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn since 1976.

    Intuitive and visceral, Jensen’s abstractions have long been admired for their unconventional compositions and profound sense of color. Saturated, densely worked surfaces, seemingly primordial in origin, transcend any sense of the struggle that Jensen attributes to his painting process. For Jensen, a painting is successful only when the artist’s initial impulse and his material’s properties harmoniously converge; this can sometimes take several years to achieve. Defined by an amorphous, ever-changing search for resolution, Jensen’s results are ultimately determined by the act of painting itself. 

    Jensen's work is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., the Tate, London, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

  • Works
    Bill Jensen

    Bill Jensen b. 1945

    THE FIVE, THE SEVEN (CARNIVAL) 2006-08
    Oil on linen
    26 x 20 inches
    66 x 50.8 centimeters
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  • Exhibitions
    • Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

      Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

      18 Apr - 21 Jul 2023
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    • Art Basel Miami Beach

      Art Basel Miami Beach

      29 Nov - 3 Dec 2022
      Cheim & Read is pleased to participate in Art Basel Miami Beach 2022 with a presentation of works by Donald Baechler, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Louise Fishman, Ron...
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    • Summer Hours

      Summer Hours

      21 Jun - 23 Sep 2022
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    • Art Basel

      Art Basel

      14 - 19 Jun 2022
      Cheim & Read is delighted to participate in the 2022 edition of Art Basel with a presentation of works by Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Ron Gorchov, Bill Jensen, Joan Mitchell,...
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    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Stillness/Flowing 20 Jan - 23 Apr 2022
      Cheim & Read is pleased to present Stillness/Flowing, an exhibition of new paintings by Bill Jensen. The exhibition will run from January 20 through April 23, 2022, at the gallery’s...
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    • Art Basel Miami Beach

      Art Basel Miami Beach

      30 Nov - 14 Feb 2021
      Cheim & Read is delighted to particiapte in this year's Art Basel Miami Beach with a presenation of works by Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, William Eggleston, Ron Gorchov, Al Held,...
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    • Art Basel

      Art Basel

      22 - 26 Sep 2021
      We are happy to be reunited with our colleagues and clients from around the world here at Art Basel for the first time since lockdown. Our presentation this year includes...
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    • Art Basel Miami Beach

      Art Basel Miami Beach

      6 - 9 Dec 2018
      Cheim & Read is pleased to participate in the 2018 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach with a presentation of works by Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Ron Gorchov, Al Held,...
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    • Frieze New York

      Frieze New York

      3 - 6 May 2018
      A focus of our presentation will be a new suite of drawings by Tal R entitled : a ship called New York. The drawings in the new suite, executed in...
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    • Art Basel Miami Beach

      Art Basel Miami Beach

      7 - 10 Dec 2017
      Cheim & Read is pleased to participate in the 2017 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach with a presentation of works by Ghada Amer, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Adam Fuss,...
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    • The Horizontal

      The Horizontal

      6 Jul - 31 Aug 2017
      Cheim & Read is pleased to announce The Horizontal, a group exhibition exploring the poetics of the horizon in abstract art. The show will feature an intergenerational selection of 21...
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    • Bill Jensen: Dark Paintings

      Bill Jensen: Dark Paintings

      ADAA: The Art Show 1 - 5 Mar 2017
      Cheim & Read is pleased to present Hushed Mountains, a new suite of paintings by Bill Jensen, at the 2017 edition of ADAA: The Art Show at the Park Avenue...
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    • Frieze New York

      Frieze New York

      5 - 8 May 2016
      Cheim & Read is pleased to participate in Frieze New York with a presentation of works by Ghada Amer, Donald Baechler, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Louise Fishman, Adam Fuss, Ron...
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    • Art Basel Miami Beach

      Art Basel Miami Beach

      3 - 6 Dec 2015
      Cheim & Read is pleased to participate in the 2015 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach with a presenation of works by Donald Baechler, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, William Eggleston,...
      Read more
    • Frieze London

      Frieze London

      14 - 17 Oct 2015
      Cheim & Read is pleased to particiapte in Frieze London with a presentation of works by Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Ron Gorchov, Jenny Holzer, Bill Jensen, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel,...
      Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Transgressions 9 Apr - 9 May 2015
      Cheim & Read is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by Bill Jensen. Jensen, who turns 70 this year, has been represented by the gallery since 2007. Bill...
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    • Reinventing Abstraction

      Reinventing Abstraction

      Curated by Raphael Rubinstein 27 Jun - 30 Aug 2013
      This exhibition focuses on New York abstraction in the 1980s as practiced by a generation of painters born between 1939 and 1949. Official accounts of the 1980s—the decade when most...
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    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      12 Jan - 18 Feb 2012
      Cheim & Read is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent work by Bill Jensen. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1945, Bill Jensen has lived and worked in New York...
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    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      18 Feb 2010 - 27 Mar 1010
      Cheim & Read is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Bill Jensen. The show is accompanied by a full-color catalogue with an essay by...
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    • Abstractions by Gallery Artists

      Abstractions by Gallery Artists

      24 Sep - 3 Oct 2009
      Works by Ghada Amer, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Louise Fishman, Adam Fuss, Jenny Holzer, Bill Jensen, Jonathan Lasker, Joan Mitchell, Jack Pierson, Milton Resnick, Pat Steir, and Juan Usle will...
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    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      5 Feb - 24 Mar 2007
      Cheim & Read is pleased to announce their first exhibition of paintings by Bill Jensen. The show is accompanied by a full color, limited edition catalogue with an essay by...
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    • Soutine and Modern Art

      Soutine and Modern Art

      The New Landscape, The New Still Life 22 Jun - 9 Sep 2006
      Willem de Kooning chose Chaim Soutine as his 'favorite artist,' one whose paintings 'had a glow that came from within.' Jack Tworkov spoke of 'his [Soutine's] completely impulsive use of...
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    • Small Paintings

      Small Paintings

      1 - 31 Jul 1998
      SMALL PAINTINGS: HAND PAINTED PICTURES by Ingo Meller Louise Fishman Juan Uslé Richmond Burton Joan Mitchell Mary Heilmann Bill Jensen Jack Pierson Dona Nelson Eva Hesse Philippe Richard Lynda Benglis...
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  • Publications
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Stillness / Flowing 2022 Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Transgressions 2017 Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      2013 Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      2010 Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Paintings 2007 Read more
    • Reinventing Abstraction

      Reinventing Abstraction

      New York Painting in the 1980s 2013 Read more
    • Soutine and Modern Art

      Soutine and Modern Art

      The New Landscape / The New Still Life 2006 Read more
  • News
    • Bill Jensen: Stillness/Flowing

      Bill Jensen: Stillness/Flowing

      Cheim & Read March 1, 2022 Read more
    • Bill Jensen: Stillness/Flowing

      Bill Jensen: Stillness/Flowing

      Cheim & Read February 1, 2022 Read more
    • The Horizontal

      The Horizontal

      Cheim & Read July 21, 2017 Read more
    • Bill Jensen and David Hinton

      Bill Jensen and David Hinton

      May 3, 2016 Read more
    • Bill Jensen: Transgressions

      Bill Jensen: Transgressions

      Cheim & Read May 6, 2015 Read more
    • Bill Jensen with Peter Brock

      Bill Jensen with Peter Brock

      February 6, 2012 Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Cheim & Read June 1, 2007 Read more
    • Bill Jensen by John Yau

      Bill Jensen by John Yau

      May 1, 2007 Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Cheim & Read March 16, 2007 Read more
    • Bill Jensen, Quintessentially American Maverick

      Bill Jensen, Quintessentially American Maverick

      March 12, 2007 Read more
    • Abstract Poetry on 25th Street

      Abstract Poetry on 25th Street

      March 1, 2007 Read more
    • Bill Jensen with Chris Martin

      Bill Jensen with Chris Martin

      February 1, 2007 Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Mary Boone Gallery April 4, 2003 Read more
    • Theorists and Appreciators

      Theorists and Appreciators

      April 30, 2001 Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Mary Boone March 16, 2001 Read more
    • The Counter-atmosphere

      The Counter-atmosphere

      December 4, 2000 Read more
    • Epiphany and Surrender: The Recent Paintings of Bill Jensen

      Epiphany and Surrender: The Recent Paintings of Bill Jensen

      January 1, 1996 Read more
    • Born Under Saturn

      Born Under Saturn

      October 23, 1995 Read more
    • Shadows and Substance

      Shadows and Substance

      April 1, 1994 Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Mary Boone Gallery December 10, 1993 Read more
    • Bill Jensen

      Bill Jensen

      Mary Boone Gallery December 7, 1993 Read more

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gallery@cheimread.com

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