Bill Jensen

Bill Jensen, a modern American abstract painter, stands among the pioneering artists who founded a studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Renowned for his unconventional compositions and a profound mastery of color, Jensen's works showcase his unique artistic vision.  

Biography of Bill Jensen

Born in 1945 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bill Jensen has been a resident and active artist in New York City since the early 1970s.

His academic journey led him to the University of Minnesota, where he earned his BFA in 1968 and his MFA in 1970.

Jensen's artistic career gained recognition when he participated in a group show at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 1971. He held his first solo exhibition at Fischbach Gallery in New York in 1973.

In 1986, Jensen's work was featured in a group show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In the same year, he held a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in the same city.

Continuing his artistic journey, Jensen exhibited at MoMA PS1 in New York in 2016, and in 2021, his artwork was showcased at the New Bedford Whaling Museum as part of the exhibition, "A Wild Note of Longing: Albert Pinkham Ryder and a Century of American Art."

Jensen's artistic legacy extends to public collections, including prestigious institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Graphische Sammlung Albertina (Vienna), Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington), the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoCA (Los Angeles), among others.

Bill Jensen's Art Style 

Renowned for his unconventional compositions and profound sense of color, Jensen's artistic style emerges as a distinctive take on abstract expressionism. His work is characterized by the skillful use of shapes and imagery, occupying expansive spaces on the canvas.

Drawing inspiration from diverse sources, he delves into the realms of art history, Chinese philosophy, the natural world, African tribal art, and film. Jensen's creative process extends to his heavily-worked etchings, which are transformed—flipped, reversed, and reconfigured—to give birth to a series of unique compositions.

In surrendering to the unpredictable nature of the painting process, Jensen allows each stroke and layer to dictate the course and destination of his work.