Karen Gunderson
Small Tukuche Peak
2006

About the Item

Oil on board Signed, titled, and dated, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. “Karen Gunderson’s all black paintings of mountains in Tibet and constellations of night skies rest uneasy in various histories of painting. Monochrome and representational, they defy well rehearsed assumptions of the history of twentieth century abstraction, and engage with a broader concern for the ability of painting to represent subject matter that often remains invisible, such as concepts of essence and world history.” — Christian Rattemeyer Karen Gunderson’s black paintings explore luminosity and push the limits of painterly gesture. Working exclusively in black oils, Gunderson focuses the act of painting on the relationship between brushstroke and light. “By using only blacks, I’m forcing the focus onto the brush strokes reflected by the light,” she says. “I paint a form, an image with black paint, and the light makes them visible, like magic.” Gunderson’s highly reflective surfaces cause the paintings to sparkle and shift as the viewer moves about the artwork. Karen Gunderson was born in Racine, Wisconsin, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Wisconsin State University, Whitewater. She earned both a Master of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, in Painting and Intermedia, respectively. Gunderson has been the subject of numerous one-person shows in the United States, Spain, and Bulgaria. Shen has received numerous honors and awards, most notably a Lorenzo Magnifico Prize in Painting at the 2001 Florence Biennale (Italy), and has been named by noted critic Donald Kuspit as one of the “New Old Masters.”

Creator:
Karen Gunderson (1943, American)
Creation Year:
2006
Dimensions:
Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)
Medium:
Oil,Board
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2000-2009
Condition:
Gallery Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU93233006111
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