DAN CHRISTENSEN "TANGERINE", 2003

Dan Christensen devoted his career to experimenting and exploring the limits, range, and possibilities of paint and pictorial form. Throughout the duration of his career, Christensen embraced the methods and concepts underlying Abstraction and Color Field painting. Christensen’s innate curiosity initiated relentless experimentations that remained consistent throughout the duration of his practice.

He is now highly recognized as one of the leaders in experimental abstraction and a fundamental American Post-War artist. Born in the USA, Christensen established his career at a young age when, after studying a BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1964 he moved to New York, where his career immediately blossomed.

Unlike many of his contemporaries who dedicated their practice to a signature style, Christensen was unrelentingly curious and allowed his dynamic version of abstraction to evolve as he tried new techniques and aesthetics. He worked with spray guns, window-washing squeegees, rakes, blasters and house painting rollers in order to apply paint in new ways. He also used sticks and brush-ends to cut into thickly applied paints. Using these unusual techniques he achieved incredible layered results that produce colors that seem to shimmer and glow.

During the last decade of Christensen's career, he elegantly combined the gestural drama of Abstract Expressionism with the stained and layered surface look popularized by the color field artists. In this 2003 work, Tangerine, seemingly contrasting oranges and greens are delicately layered, achieving a subtle tone that washes across the page, forming its background. True to Christensen’s iconic style, pristine white paint drips and glides across the surface of the painting, suggestion, and hinting at forms that persistently remain abstract.

Christensen began exhibiting in New York in 1966 and achieved success with his unique lyrical Abstract Expressionism, winning numerous awards throughout his career. In the late 1960’s Christensen was championed by renowned critics such as Clement Greenberg, as one of the most original abstract painters, which resulted in his works being placed in many major museum collections, such as the Guggenheim, the Whitney Museum, the MET, the Moma, and the Albright-Knox Gallery. Today, Christensen is widely recognized as a brave experimentalist and leading figure in the abstraction and gestural painting movements of the 20th century.

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Untitled ("Tangerine")

USA, 2003

Signed and dated by the artist 

Acrylic and mixed media on Paper

18.25"H 16.25"W

Very good condition.

Provenance: the Estate of Dan Christensen