Mayan Temple, Per II: Palenque

A student of Hans Hofmann’s, Alfred Jensen absorbed some of Hofmann’s preferences for high-keyed color, thickly painted surfaces, and underlying systems of order. But Jensen was a true maverick, developing his own theories of painting by mining a wide range of interdisciplinary sources, including the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose writings explored the interrelationships of color. These concepts, coupled with a strong propensity toward cosmic theology, led Jensen to create an almost incomprehensibly dense artistic system through which he generated vibrant, patterned paintings unlike any others of their time. Born in Guatemala but raised in Europe and the United States, Jensen met collector James Michener in 1961–1962. Recently returned himself from a trip to Guatemala, Michener commissioned Jensen to create a new painting inspired by his birthplace. Jensen responded with a series of new works, from which Michener picked Mayan Temple for his collection. The painting’s colors and their positions in relation to one another are determined by the physical plan of the temple of Palenque in modern-day Mexico, which in turn was oriented along the path of the North Star in the night sky. Despite its complex conceptual underpinnings, the work is jubilant, sensuous, and undeniably contemporary in feel.