Dan Christensen

Autumn Park I

Following the dominant Abstract Expressionist wave of post-WWII, which decried realism in favor of non-representational forms, the second-generation Abstract Expressionists pointed t...

A leading abstract painter in his lifetime, Dan Christensen drew from a range of Modernist sources to produce colorful, luminous compositions that featured giant dots, whirling loops...

Dan Christensen (1942-2007) is widely recognized as one of America’s foremost abstract artist. Over the course his lengthy career, Christensen was devoted to exploring and expanding the constantly shifting aesthetics of 20th century abstraction. Christensen established his reputation at the end of the 1960s, by using spray guns to create colorful stacks, loops, and lines in his artworks. This body of work was considered by the legendary art critic Clement Greenberg among the most original abstract paintings of the decade. Unlike many of his contemporaries who dedicated themselves to a signature style, Christensen was unrelentingly curious and allowed his dynamic version of abstraction to evolve as he tried new techniques and varied his aesthetic. During the 1980's in particular, Christensen focused on experimenting with different forms of washing, spraying, and layering colours over top of each other. The works from Christensen's late period combine the gestural drama of Abstract Expressionism with the stained surface look popularized by the color field artists. The aesthetic complexity he achieved with these combined techniques are perfectly demonstrated in this later untitled work (aka "Indian Summer...