Dan Christensen: The Painter's Painter

Dan Christensen The Painter's Painter

April 29 - June 4, 2022

Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com cover: Midnight with Miro (detail), 1985, acrylic on canvas, 79 x 51 inches

Dan Christensen | The Painter's painter Dan Christensen first achieved spectacular success before the age of 26 with work included in two New York Whitney Museum Annuals. Now, fifty-five years on, his place securely established in American art history as a leading figure in post-World War II Color Abstract painting, Christensen stands large in this pantheon not only for his color virtuosity and the excellence of his painting quality, but for his very dedication to that medium itself. Quite simply, as Clement Greenberg, the legendary critic and theorist of 20th century art, famously described him, Dan Christensen became triumphantly “one of the painters on whom the course of American art” depended.

Christensen’s mature career began in the mid-1960s, after Abstract Expressionism and its ego-based form of emotional expression was perceived to have run its course. Artists of the 1960s were looking widely to find new ways to make art relevant in a time of revolutionary political and social change, counterculture, rapid technological advances, and the decay of traditional social and personal norms. Many art schools were teaching new programs in “alternative media” that included such things as video, installations, performance art, multi-media constructions, and other forms of “art making” that in most cases excluded painting which was then being widely decried as “dead.”

It was therefore very much against the trend in the art world of the time that Christensen ignored the blandishments of the fashionistas and refused, as it were, to throw the paint and canvas “baby” out with the AbEx “bathwater.” He ignored the material’s obituary and simply adhered to what was, for him, an art form that continued to provide a robust avenue to pursue an individual course of personal artistic expression.

This resolute dedication to a medium whose demise turns out to have been greatly exaggerated not only earned him the encomium of “painter’s painter” but, combined with his endless enthusiasm for protean experimentation, exploration, and evolution, produced a fulfilling career that The New York Times critic Roberta Smith once wrote would “hold its own among works by Jackson Pollock or Sigmar Polke to name but two.”

Indeed, from the beginning of his forty-year career until his untimely death in 2007 at the early age of 65, Christensen retained a deep fascination with the unending possibilities that paint and canvas afforded him.

He was continually invigorated by the myriad kinds of experimentations and innovations he could pioneer 2

with techniques, paints, colors and modes of paint handling and application. As a result, he was at the center of many of the most important developments in abstract painting during the latter half of the 20th century.

The more than 35 paintings and works on paper in this latest LewAllen exhibition entitled Dan Christensen: The Painter’s Painter range across virtually the entire expanse of Christensen’s career and illustrate the protean variety of techniques and visual aesthetics that the artist explored during his lifetime. Contrasted with the often dense, encrusted, agitated surfaces of AbEx paintings, Christensen’s works evince the kind of “openness” and “truthfulness” that Greenberg heralded as the new, ultimate “pure art;” what Greenberg coined as “Post-Painterly Abstraction.” This movement also included such important contemporaries of Christensen’s as Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Gene Davis, and Morris Louis, among others.

This is an art that put aside obvious subject matter, ego-driven emotion (what another great critic of the time, Harold Rosenberg, called “apocalyptic wallpaper”), and spatial illusion in favor of a new sense of openness in picture composition, lucidity of color and optical clarity that revealed the beauty of sheer materiality of paint and canvas. This is the art that Dan Christensen became famous for. The works included in this exhibition demonstrate his fascination with diverse physical properties of paint – from thin and vaporous to thick and inscribable – as well as innumerable unlikely tools and devices he gleefully adapted for applying and manipulating paint – from spray guns and paint rollers to knives, squeegees, broomstick handles, and turkey basters.

These were the means for a lifetime of enthusiastic creating of a never ending pictorial variety. Spontaneity and experimentation became his artistic ethos and through this lived process Christensen revealed the vitality and constant artistic innovation that abstract painting could possess and by which he developed his individual style.

Soon after moving to New York in 1965 from Nebraska, Christensen’s own engagement with the great art experiment of the 1960s began when he bought a spray-gun from an auto-body shop and used it to make art.

It was not long before this technique was winning him immense acclaim in a New York art world hungry for what was new.

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The spray gun gave Christensen an entirely new way of applying paint to canvas. If Pollock had impressed the art world by replacing the brush by flinging paint with a stick or pouring it directly from a can, Christensen took the idea into an entirely new realm with the spray gun’s ability to refine the way paint is propelled through the air onto the surface of a canvas. This tool allowed him new ways to project paint in a manner he could control, unachievable by the AbEx methods of manual projection. Christensen was delighted by his new found ability to achieve both soft focus and precision using mechanical spray techniques. With this tool, Christensen could create atmospheric backgrounds on which lively threads of color pulse across the works, as in Untitled (1967) and Laurel Canyon (1969) both included in this exhibition and each an iconic work of the artist’s early spray period.

Perhaps one of the most important works from this era is Times Square (1967). Featured in this exhibition, the painting is a masterpiece of Christensen’s facility with the use of the controlled precision and unique properties achieved by him from the compressed air employed to propel paint with varying effects, from fields of sprayed color to more focused lines. In this work, Christensen creates a panoply of loops, tangles and stacks of folded color ribbons redolent of the turbulent times of the 1960s and representative of the mark his spray paintings made in the art world of the time. For Christensen as a young artist, though, the work he was creating was the result of the exuberance he felt in expressing “the harmonious turbulence of the universe,” as he called the spirit that would abide throughout his career and the insatiable curiosity and constant obsession he felt for finding new ways to engage paint on canvas.

By the 1970s, his drive for experimentation had indeed propelled Christensen into yet new modes of picture making. He’d done what he wanted to do with the spray gun for the time being and was restless to find fresh means for innovation and expression, what his widow, Elaine Grove, described as a desire for “greater bravado of the hand.”

Illustrating this turn in his career, the current exhibition includes works from one of his most productive periods called the “Early Calligraphic Stains,” a series he created from 1976 through 1984. In these vibrant paintings, Christensen explores the relationship between figure and ground, indeed achieving his goal of bringing hand into closer contact with canvas, and replacing the sprayer with paint rollers, squeegees, brushes and turkey basters.

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Here he applies layers of thinned acrylic paints stained into the texture of raw canvas to create solid color backgrounds. Over these, he paints cloud-like forms of white gesso, sometimes augmented with slivers of acrylic color as in Song of Ceylon (1979), or rendered with gesso only as with the biomorphic form that hovers over the background in Norseland (1979). In other works in this series, Christensen overlays geometric shapes in deeper colors on top of solid-color backgrounds vaguely reminiscent of Rothko, as in Love Scale (1980) and Untitled (1980).

In the “Late Calligraphic Stains” from 1986 to 2006, Christensen brings more saturated layered colors into the backgrounds of his paintings adding dazzling multicolored lines that array across the surfaces with amped up energy not seen since some of the early spray paintings. Here Christensen uses sticks and basters to overlay gestural calligraphic lines that swirl and dance with electrically charged vivacity of the sort evident in Kora (2004), or two of the acrylic works on paper included in this exhibition, Late Lola (2001), and Rama Red (2005).

Christensen constantly invented and reinvented new visual languages over the course of his forty-year career and this exhibition includes examples of work from many of his other pivotal series, including the “Orb” or “Spot” paintings from the mid-1990s, the “Calligraphic Scrapes” from the mid-1980s, and his revisits to the spray gun with the “Portrait Sprays” from the late 1980s and the “Rhymers” from 2004.

Transcending across every period of Christensen’s work and evident throughout each piece included in this exhibition is the artist’s remarkable fluency with color as the primary vocabulary of his eloquent visual language. His colors can be bright and playful, they can be odd and snappy, they can be soft and sweet or loud and raucous. They are the colors of real life as it was in the 20th century and it is in the 21st century; they help to connect the art to the viewer in a way similar to music or poetry; at a visceral level, where the impact is, as Nabokov described it, “the telltale tingle between the shoulder blades.”

Grove said that her husband wanted for his painting to be “an experience to elevate the spirit.” It is the color in the paintings that enable that experience. It is his superb use of color that carries the feelings of the artist and the feelings of the times. It valorizes the freedom of those times that Christensen felt in making his art and the importance of freedom that endures in the creative enterprise.

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Here, deep in the flash and zing of his colors is the pulsing heart of Dan Christensen’s art. It is also mainly in these colors that there lives on the life-affirming effect of Christensen’s wide-ranging body of art, his unending quest to explore alternatives and his unyielding insistence on unfettered independence in doing so. This is the enduring importance of the work of Dan Christensen. It is his lasting message to all artists and to all people.

Freedom is paramount. It is what gives his art profound meaning and makes it timeless. It sustains the historical and continued vitality of abstraction as an important mode of art-making long past when painting was declared dead. But also – and just as important – it makes this work abundantly joyful and gorgeously beautiful. In the end, that is what most of all makes it “an experience to elevates the spirit.”

- Kenneth R. Marvel

Untitled, 1967 acrylic on paper image: 4 x 15.88 paper: 4.25 x 16 inches framed: 12.13 x 23.75 inches 023867 6

Times Square, 1967 acrylic on canvas 69.5 x 69.5 inches 7

Dolan, 1988 acrylic on canvas 60.5 x 43 inches 8

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Untitled (003-06), 2006 acrylic on paper image: 12 x 7.5 inches paper: 14.25 x 10.25 inches framed: 20.63 x 15.75 inches

Song of Ceylon, 1979 acrylic on canvas 73.5 x 91 inches

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Night Garden II, 1986 acrylic on canvas 42 x 24 inches 12

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Untitled (007-04), 2004 acrylic on paper image: 13.5 x 11 inches paper: 16 x 12 inches framed: 22.5 x 18.5 inches

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5 or 6 PM, 1994 acrylic on canvas 47 x 99 inches 15

Untitled (012-05), 2005 acrylic on paper image: 10.75 x 4.63 inches paper: 11.75 x 9 inches unframed

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Della Street, 1981 acrylic on canvas 64.5 x 49 inches

Love Scale, 1980 acrylic on canvas 68.5 x 48.5 inches

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Untitled (W285S4), 1985 acrylic on panel 26 x 19 inches 20

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Midnight with Miro, 1985 acrylic on canvas 79 x 51 inches

Byzantine, 1988 acrylic on canvas 68.63 x 37.63 inches 22

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Red Liner #2, 1971 acrylic on canvas 9 x 44 inches

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Back to the Fuscia, 2005 acrylic on canvas 14 x 80 inches 25

Rhymester, 2004 acrylic on canvas 40.25 x 30 inches 26

Kora, 2004 acrylic on canvas 73.5 x 37.5 inches 27

Untitled (WW014-04), 2004 acrylic on paper image: 38.13 x 20.63 paper: 41.75 x 23 inches framed: 47.75 x 28.88 inches

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Untitled (038-02), 2002 acrylic on paper image: 11.13 x 8.75 inches paper: 16 x 12.25 inches unframed

Cameroun, 1994 acrylic on canvas 38 x 54 inches

Untitled (A029-80), 1980 acrylic on paper image: 28.18 x 22 inches paper: 30.5 x 22.25 inches framed: 35.63 x 27.75 inches

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The Pier, 1978 acrylic on canvas 58 x 44.5 inches 33

Bill's Drift, 1979 acrylic on canvas 57.5 x 29.5 inches

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Untitled (022-04), 2004 acrylic on paper image: 9.5 x 6.88 inches paper: 11.75 x 8.75 inches unframed 36

Untitled (032-81), 1981 acrylic on paper image/paper: 21.5 x 30.5 inches framed: 27.38 x 35.75 inches 37

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Laurel Canyon, 1969 acrylic on canvas 23 x 115 inches 39

Untitled (095MB), 1995 acrylic on canvas 50 x 56 inches 40

Lulu, 2002 acrylic on canvas 88 x 8 inches

Untitled (038-05), 2005 acrylic on paper image/paper: 12 x 18 inches framed: 16.5 x 22.25 inches 42

Rama Red, 2005 acrylic on canvas 72 x 38.5 inches 43

Silver Surfer, 1994 acrylic on canvas 39.75 x 55 inches

Late Lola, 2001 acrylic on paper image: 49.25 x 27.38 inches paper: 60 x 40 inches framed: 67.5 x 47.75 inches

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Two Steps from the Blues, 1985 acrylic on canvas 60.25 x 48 inches 47

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Rogue Red, 2005 acrylic on canvas 27 x 62 inches 49

Untitled (062-01), 2001 acrylic on paper image: 19.25 x 14.25 inches paper: 24 x 17.75 inches framed: 30.63 x 24.13 inches

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Untitled (005-83), 1983 acrylic on paper image/paper: 30.5 x 22.75 inches framed: 35.75 x 28 inches 51

Untitled (WW014-82), 1982 acrylic on paper image/paper: 29.5 x 42 inches framed: 35.5 x 7.63 inches 52

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Untitled, 2002 acrylic on paper image: 10.5 x 5.88 inches paper: 13 x 8.5 inches unframed 023866

Norseland, 1979 acrylic on canvas 63 x 43 inches

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Jambo Caribe, 1981 acrylic on canvas 64 x 52 inches

Dan Christensen (1942 - 2007) EDUCATION 1964

Kansas City Art Institute, BFA

AWARDS 1992 1986 1969 1968

Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant Gottlieb Foundation Grant Guggenheim Fellowship Theodoran Award National Endowment Grant

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2022 LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM (also 2019, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2009, 2007) Berry Campbell, New York, NY (also 2019, 2015) 2014 Spanierman Modern, New York, NY (also 2012-13, 2011, 2009, 2007) 2010 Elaine Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, FL (also 2008) 2009 Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE 2009 Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO 2002-03 Parrish Museum, Southampton, NY 2001-02 The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH 1999 Salander O’Reilly Galleries, New York, NY (also 1982-1998) 1994 Gallery ISM, Seoul, Korea 1987 Lincoln Center Gallery, New York, NY 1984 Meredith Long and Company, New York, NY & Houston, TX (also 1978-1983) 1976 Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, NY (also 1969-1975) 1972 Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (also 1970) 1971 Galerie Ricke, Cologn, Germany (also 1969) 1967 Noah Goldowsky Gallery, New York, NY (Richard Bellamy, Curator) SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2010 “Colorscope: Abstract Painting, 1960-1979,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA 2007 “Das Kapital. Blue Chips & Masterpieces,” Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany “High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 19671975,” National Academy Museum, New York, NY 2001 “Clement Greenberg: A Critic’s Collection,” Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR 1982 “Miro in America,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

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1975 1972 1971

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“New Work on Paper I,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (also shown at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) “American Art since 1960,” Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO "Abstract Painting in the 70s," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA “The Structure of Color,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY “Lyrical Abstraction,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY “Color and Field 1890-1970,” Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY (also shown at Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH, 1971, and at the Cleveland Museum, Cleveland, OH) “Recent Acquisitions,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS Albrecht Art Gallery, St. Joseph, MO Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA The Butler Institute Of American Art, Youngstown, OH The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Switzerland Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Ludwig Collection in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, FL Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com © 2022 LewAllen Contemporary, LLC Artwork © Estate of Dan Christensen