Dan Christensen: The Stain Paintings - Spanierman Modern

d A n c h r i s t e n s e n
the stAin pAintings
A

dAn christensen
the stAin pAintings, 1976–1988
LisA n. peters
feBruAry 8 to mArch 12, 2011
spAniermAn modern
53 eAst 58th street new york, ny 10022-1617 teL (212) 832-1400
christineBerry@spAniermAn.com www.spAniermAnmodern.com
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Among coLor fieLd painters, Dan Christensen
(1942–2007) is best known for his pioneering
use of the spray gun and the window-washing
squeegee, from which he produced innovative and
dynamic works with lustrous surface qualities. 1
Less attention has been given to the paintings he
created from 1976 to 1988, in which the staining
of the canvas played a central role. As in his
other works, in these images, Christensen explored
many facets in the nature of painting, addressing
issues he had considered earlier, while moving into
new territory. Encompassing wide-ranging and
innovative techniques, these color-soaked paintings,
with their skeletal, skittish calligraphic lines
and unusual harmonies of shape and tone, exude
the artist’s pleasure and passion in the act of painting
during a particularly joyous time in his life.
Christensen’s usage of staining came about as a
natural step in his logical progression, as he sought
new ways to pursue the issues that compelled him.
A similar development had occurred in his “plaid”
paintings. 2 In these works of 1969–71, he turned
from the spray gun to the use of commercial
paint rollers and window-washing squeegees that
he pulled or pushed across unstretched canvases
that were stapled to a carpeted Xoor. Yet despite
this new method and the contrast in appearance
between the airy and luminous sprays and the
tighter, more solid plaids, Christensen did not see
a “drastic” change in his art. “The main diVerence,”
he told the New York Times reporter Grace
Glueck in 1971, “is that I’m working with more
surface. I couldn’t get enough paint onto the
canvas by spraying, or at least not the kind of paint
I wanted.” 3
Christensen’s turn to staining had a comparable
genesis. The plaids had been followed by the
white and dark “slab” paintings, some squeegeed
or spread with masonry trowels, and others created
with thick brushstrokes swirled into tactile
layers of pigment, works in which Christensen
took advantage of new developments in acrylic
paints that extended and thickened pigments.
These dense, manipulated, scraped surfaces seem
the antithesis of the “stains,” in which paint and
canvas are wedded, the canvas weave is part of the
image, and colored shapes and lines seem to lithely
graze the surface. Yet, in the artist’s exploration of
the surface as a Weld for ongoing painting activity,
this movement from thick to thinly bled pigment
is less dramatic than it might appear from a visual
comparison of the two groups of works. The paint
extending agents Christensen employed in the
slabs may have prompted him to consider and
want to explore the opposite, the additives that
could produce the eVect of dilution. Thus, rather
than a reversal, the slab and stain paintings may
be seen as two sides of the same coin.
In fact, one link between these two groups is
Christensen’s fascination with the possibilities of
the new paints and painting products that came
on the market, beginning in the 1960s. Whereas
the Abstract Expressionists of an earlier generation
had worked in oils thinned with turpentine, the
younger generation had access to the new waterbased
acrylics developed by Leonard Bocour and
Sam Golden. These included latex house paints
and paints that could be thinned with water to the
consistency of a watercolor wash without losing
their color. The new paints spread easily, dried
quickly, and left clean edges, by contrast with
the blurring effects of thinned oils. Among the
additives that Christensen favored was a tensionbreaker
developed by Golden. A substance with
the property of liquid detergent but without its
viscosity, the tension breaker could be added to a
water-based paint to reduce surface tension, allowing
paint to disperse readily and penetrate into the
canvas rather than laying on top of it. Unavailable
when Helen Frankenthaler began to use staining
methods in the early 1950s, this means of achieving
liquidity was clearly one that Christensen
found rich in opportunities that he avidly pursued.
As he had in the plaids, in the stains, Christensen
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Fig. 1.
Dan Christensen, Studio,
Waverly Place, New York,
1981; photograph by
Arthur Mones (1919–1998),
Collection of the Dan
Christensen Marital Trust.
began a work by stapling the unstretched canvas
to the carpeted Xoor. Mixing his colors in cups
or buckets, he would then pour the thinned paint
onto the raw canvas and roll the paint uniformly
to create an overall ground for the painting. He
would sometimes lay multiple colors on top of
each other to achieve the desired hue. The next
step was the calligraphic “drawing,” or framework,
of the piece. A stick, a brush, sometimes a turkey
baster, would be the instrument of choice for this
aspect of the painting. He would Wnish by pouring
paint into areas around this framework where he
wanted color, and he would then manipulate it
with paint rollers, brushes, or basters. At times he
left the color on the surface and at other times he
let it bleed into the canvas. In a few instances, he
would go over an area with a Wne gritted sandpaper
to give a painting a textured look.
While reXecting issues that would occupy
Christensen throughout his career, the paintings
in this show represent a unique convergence in
his art, as he merged the Xatness that was a staple
of Color Field painting with the tactility and gestural
presence of action that had been a foundation
of Abstract Expressionist painting. Although
Christensen had been too young to take part in
the Abstract Expressionist movement during its
heyday, having moved to New York in 1965, he
had absorbed a knowledge of the movement in his
youth. When he was sixteen, he saw the work of
Jackson Pollock on a trip to Denver, an experience
that made him realize that “he could take
a diVerent approach to art—that it was possible
for painting to be a personal experience.” 4 His
absorption of the art of his predecessors was noted
by Valentin Tatransky in 1982. Reviewing a show
consisting primarily of Christensen’s stains being
held at Meredith Long Contemporary Gallery
in New York, Tatransky acknowledged this early
exposure, writing: “Dan Christensen is a painter
who’s thought hard about Pollock, Newman,
Olitski, and Noland, going through them rather
than around them.” Referencing the paintings on
view, Tatransky observed: “Other artists have also
tried to break the pictorial canon of high abstract
art in this way, and many of their results have
been poor. What makes Christensen succeed is his
sensitivity for surface. He’s especially good at laying
down and layering washes of color, and so his fragile,
brittle, tree-like images come as a surprise.” 5
Despite the continuity in Christensen’s art from
the slabs to the stains, one immediate diVerence
is the emergence in his art of “Wgure-ground”
relationships that he had previously suppressed.
Yet, that this new “imagery” did not compromise
the “cohesive eVect of all-overness,” was noted
by John ElderWeld in the catalogue for New Work
on Paper 1, a show he curated for the Museum of
Modern Art in 1981, shortly after his arrival as
chief curator at the museum. Among the eight
artists included in the exhibition, Christensen was
represented by eleven works in acrylic on paper
that were similar to his stain paintings on canvas
of the time. To ElderWeld, Christensen had kept
the eVect uniWed because “the drawing that makes
each picture frankly repeats the geometry of the
whole surface—following its corners, its diagonals,

or dividing it down the center—as well as displacing
that geometry at the same time.” ElderWeld
observed the way that the color of Christensen’s
drawing either stayed “quite close in tone to that
of the ground or is a thin or whitened or otherwise
‘light’ form of drawing that does not seem to
cut into depth . . . because the drawing either lays
candidly on top of the Xat surface (which seems,
therefore, to pass uninterruptedly beneath it) or is
embedded against the surface by accents and areas
of color that form, as it were, an upper or overlayed
surface.” In a review of the exhibition, Hilton
Kramer also commended Christensen’s drawings,
remarking how, for example, “a watercolor shape
is made to ‘rhyme,’ so to speak, with a crayon line
of similar color or hue.” 6 In a Newsweek article, in
which he covered the show, John Ashbery noted
that Christensen’s “lighter-than-air abstractions”
evoked “tendrils held up to the light.” 7
In the Museum of Modern Art’s catalogue
ElderWeld gave credence to how the giving and
taking of space across Christensen’s surfaces,
whether frontal or open, gave his art coherence
and stability. At the same time, ElderWeld observed
that Christensen’s new work suggested certain
organic allusions, writing: “Its very creation of
geometry from gesture invites comparison with
spontaneous natural growth, just as the particular
structures thus formed invite comparison with
speciWc fragments and forms of the natural world.”
While recognizing that abstract art naturally
“makes concessions to the appearance of things
outside of itself,” ElderWeld noted that the associations
to be drawn from Christensen’s works
gave them their distinctive moods, which he felt
were often pastoral, “telling of the instinctual, of
the fragile as well as lush beauty, and above all of
sensual delectation.” 8 Of the works Christensen
created between 1976 and 1984, the art historian
James Monte also commented on the associative
aspect of these paintings, stating: “A shaping of
thickly painted color turns into a fantastic creature,
in one instance a goggle-eyed amphibian
emerging from a luminously painted ground.” 9
At one point Monte even referred to these paintings
as biomorphic abstractions, evoking the legacy
of art of Joan Miró, for which Christensen had
a deep reverence. 10 That Christensen’s new works
struck the nerve of his time was reXected in the
commission he received from Delmar Hendricks,
the director of the Gallery at Lincoln Center and
the head of its poster program, to create a poster
for the Mostly Mozart Festival of 1980. Christensen’s
serigraph, portraying minimal washes of color and
line, was the Wrst, and possibly the only special
edition print to sell out (Fig. 2).
Although it may be a stretch to link the works
of 1976 to 1987 directly with Christensen’s life,
the years he created them encompass a period of
particular happiness for him. Settled in New York,
his divorce of the late 1960s behind him, in 1978,
he married the actor and model Elaine Grove
(now a sculptor). Their son, Jimmy, was born in
1979, and a second son, Willie, arrived in 1982.
Christensen’s son from his Wrst marriage, Moses, a
teenager then, was present for summer visits. The
period was one in which the family spent summers
in the Springs, Long Island, near the homes
of many like-minded abstract painters, enjoying
a place to which they would move permanently
in 2002. Among the artists who regularly came by
Christensen’s studio in those days were the painters
Larry Poons, Larry Zox, and Ronnie LandWeld,
and the sculptors Michael Steiner and Peter
Reginato. Jack Bush, Daryl Hughto, and Walter
Fig. 2.
Fine Arts Creations, Inc.,
New York, poster after serigraph
by Dan Christensen
for Mostly Mozart Festival,
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln
Center, July 14–August 23,
1980, Collection of the Dan
Christensen Marital Trust.
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Fig. 3.
Dan Christensen in
chest waders, Montauk,
New York; photograph by
Elaine Grove, Collection
of the Dan Christensen
Marital Trust.
Darby Bannard lived out of town, but would visit
when they came to the city. At Max’s Kansas City,
Christensen would see and spend time with Jules
Olitski and Kenneth Noland. Times of friendship,
these gatherings also provided opportunities
for a spirited exchange of ideas that spurred the
artists to venture in new directions in their work.
The poet Billy Collins and the art historian Karen
Wilkin also were in touch with Christensen, as
was the noted critic Clement Greenberg, who had
championed Post-Painterly Abstraction beginning
in the early 1960s. 11 An admirer of Christensen’s
work, Greenberg stated in 1990: “Dan Christensen
is one of the painters on whom the course of
American art depends.” 12 Yet, as Grove recalls,
“Dan liked Clem very much and had enormous
respect for his eye, but he did not consider himself
a strict Greenbergian formalist.”
Despite the abstractness of Christensen’s art, his
Long Island summers are suggested in many of
the stains. While Atlantic Champagne (1979) evokes
the frothiness of the drink in its title, it also references
the sea, where Christensen spent time surf
casting at the ocean’s edge. In other images such
as Troubadour (1988), Sissystrut (1980), and Santali
(1980), sails, Xags Xying, sea breezes, and coastal
light seem to preside. Christensen’s enigmatic
titles reference a number of sources. However, the
artist would not be thinking of a literal title as he
painted. Instead a title often simply occurred to
him when he stood back from a completed work,
or some aspect of a work would bring a title to
mind. To express the idea of a separation between
a title and a work, Christensen would at times
slightly change the spelling of a word used in a
title. The titles of Christensen’s paintings are best
considered as reXective of his context, conveying
the music he played in his studio or names from
literature or Wlm that had drawn his attention. The
titles of works in the show include Beulah Land
(1978), perhaps referencing the hymn of this name
written in 1875 by Edgar Page Stiles, or an idyllic
place looking over a heavenly vista as described in
John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. The title Sissystrut
(1980) is drawn from the funk classic “Cissy Strut,”
by the Meters, a New Orleans Band that launched
the career of Art Neville. Jambo Caribe (1981) is
the name of a 1964 song by Dizzy Gillespie, while
Topsy Part II is the title of an R&B hit by Cozy
Cole, famed for its prolonged drum solo. Song of
Ceylon (1977) may reference the unusual 1934
British documentary by John Grierson about
native rituals in Sri Lanka.
A number of works suggest Christensen’s
response to the legacy of Abstract Expressionism.
In Atlantic Champagne (1979), Christensen Xung,
brushed, and pulled Pollock-like gestures of
white paint of diVerent consistencies on a wallscale
horizontal, but the cartoonish humor and
scribbling suggests a pure pleasure in the movement
of paint on this expanse rather than a sense
of angst. A feeling of the light in Monet’s last
paintings reverberates outward from this work.
Monet, in fact, is an artist for which Christensen
felt a particular aYnity, while paintings in which
Christensen created harmonies with vivid hues
and a balance of asymmetrical forms such as Troubadour
(1988) bring to mind his admiration for the
art of Matisse, who Christensen noted as among
his favorite artists in 1974. 13 In the shimmering
Ridge (1976), Christensen poured silver under the
semi-translucent white ridged backbone, bringing
the light through from the back of this form.

It was works such as this to which the poet and
critic John Ashbery referred in a review of an
exhibition of Christensen’s art in 1979. In a day
when artists had either taken the Minimal into the
purely conceptual or had returned to representational
forms of image-making, Ashbery found it
“sobering and refreshing to turn to a number of
artists who are extending the language of modernism
in a more traditional and serious way.” He
went on to note that “one younger artist who has
renewed the tradition [of Color Field painting]
honorably is Dan Christensen. His pale, vaporous
washes of light are delectable. Often they are
loosely organized along a white line which serves
as an axis for vague blotches of color to relate to—
sometimes like petals on a stem, or laundry on a
clothesline, or clouds bisected by a telephone wire,
though such comparisons are considered odious
in discussions of this kind of work.” Ashbery
found Christensen’s color occasionally “smoldering
and sensuous,” but observed that the artist
was “mainly interested in articulating the nuances
separating patches of close-keyed dull pastel tones,
and he does it masterfully. He forces the eye to
recognize distinctions among areas of color which
at Wrst have strong family resemblances and only
somewhat later turn out to be mavericks who
could just as easily be at odds with each other.”
Referencing the universal metaphor of the Tree
of Life, Ridge has an iconic quality, yet its freshness
and simplicity make this work Wrst and foremost
a sensuous optical experience, the product of an
artist in love with the interaction of paint and
surface and the inWnite ways of exploring their
convergence.
Lisa N. Peters
1. Notable sources on Christensen include Sharon L.
Kennedy, Douglas Drake, and Karen Wilkin, Dan Christensen:
Forty Years of Painting, exh. cat. (Kansas City, Mo.: Kemper
Museum of Contemporary Art, 2009); Dan Christensen: The
Plaid Paintings, exh. cat. (including an interview with
Elaine Grove) (New York: Spanierman Modern, 2009); and
Stephen Westfall, Dan Christensen, exh. cat. (New York:
Spanierman Modern, 2007).
2. These paintings were the subject of Dan Christensen:
The Plaid Paintings (2009).
3. Grace Glueck, “A Happy New Year?” Art in America 59
(January–February 1971), 27.
4. Cited in Sharon L. Kennedy, “Charting His Course:
Dan Christensen’s Early Years,” in Kennedy, Drake, and
Wilkin, 2009, 10.
5. Valentin Tatransky, “Dan Christensen,” Arts Magazine
(May 1982), 11.
6. Hilton Kramer, “Art: Show of New Works Sets
Example at Modern,” New York Times, February 13, 1981.
7. John Ashbery, “Pleasures of Paperwork,” Newsweek,
March 16, 1981, 94.
8. John ElderWeld, New Work on Paper 1, exh. cat.
(New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1981), 12.
9. James Monte, Dan Christensen: The Circular Paintings,
exh. cat. (New York: Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, Inc., 1991).
10. James Monte, “A Note on Dan Christensen’s
Paintings,” in Dan Christensen: A Survey, 1966–1990, exh. cat.
(East Hampton, N.Y.: Vered Gallery, 1990). See also Barbara
Rose, Miró in America, exh. cat. (Houston, Tex.: Museum of
Fine Arts, 1982).
11. On this term and Greenberg’s conception of it, see
Karen Wilkin, “Notes on Color Field Painting,” in Wilkin,
Color as Field: American Painting, 1950–1975, exh. cat. (New
York: American Federation of Arts in association with Yale
University Press, New Haven, Conn., 2007), 11–75.
12. Clement Greenberg’s statement appears in Dan
Christensen: A Survey, 1966–1990, exh. cat. (East Hampton,
N.Y.: Vered Gallery, 1990).
13. Unpublished typescript, “Interview with Dan
Christensen by R. Phillips and W. Hamilton,” November 2,
1974, part 1, 2.
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beulah land, 1978, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 29 1 ⁄ 8 x 68 3 ⁄ 4 in.

idge, 1976, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 78 x 90 1 ⁄ 2 i n .
9

atlantic champagne, 1979, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 69 1 ⁄ 2 x 131 1 ⁄ 2 in.
11

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polarstar, 1978, AcryLic And gesso on cAnvAs, 26 x 39 1 ⁄ 2 in.

song of ceylon, 1979, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 73 1 ⁄ 2 x 91 in.
13

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norseland, 1979, AcryLic And gesso on cAnvAs, 43 x 63 in.

little ceasar, 1979, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 60 3 ⁄4 x 57 3 ⁄4 in.
15

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infield seltzer, 1980, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 102 x 66 in.

ig bad wolf, 1981, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 43 1 ⁄ 4 x 69 in.
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sissystrut, 1980, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 69 x 52 1 ⁄ 2 i n .

santali, 1980, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 66 3 ⁄ 4 x 6 2 i n .
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coahoma, 1981, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 20 x 1 5 i n .

yellow bower, 1981, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 71 1 ⁄ 4 x 40 in.
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carib cocktail, 1981, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 68 x 53 1 ⁄ 4 in.

topsy part ii, 1981, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 67 x 6 9 i n .
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tokyo tattoo, 1981, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 87 x 77 7 ⁄ 8 in.

jambo caribe, 1981, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 64 x 5 2 i n .
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troubadour, 1988, AcryLic on cAnvAs, 90 7 ⁄ 8 x 75 in.

checkList of the eXhiBition
AtLAntic chAmpAgne 1979
Acrylic on canvas, 69H 2 131H in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
© D. Christensen 1979 “Atlantic Champagne”
Inscribed on stretcher: 131H x 69H
BeuLAh LAnd 1978
Acrylic on canvas, 29J 2 68I in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
© D. Christensen 1978 acrylic on canvas “Beulah Land”
Inscribed on stretcher: 29G x 68I
Big BAd woLf 1981
Acrylic on canvas, 43G 2 69 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
© D. Christensen 1981 / “Big Bad Wolf”
Inscribed on stretcher: 43H x 69
cAriB cocktAiL 1981
Acrylic on canvas, 68 2 53G in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
acrylic on canvas © D. Christensen 1981 “Carib Cocktail”
Inscribed on stretcher: 53G x 68
coAhomA 1981
Acrylic on canvas, 20 2 15 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
© D. Christensen 1981 / “Coahoma”
infieLd seLtZer 1980
Acrylic on canvas, 102 2 66 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
D. Christensen 1980 “Infield Seltzer” acrylic on canvas
JAmBo cAriBe 1981
Acrylic on canvas, 64 2 52 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso: acrylic on
canvas “Jambo Caribe” © D. Christensen 1981
LittLe ceAsAr 1979
Acrylic on canvas, 60I 2 57I in.
Signed on verso: © D. Christensen
Inscribed on stretcher: “Little Ceasar” /
(for Jimmy Lu) / 57I x 60I
norseLAnd 1979
Acrylic and gesso on canvas, 43 2 63 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
© D. Christensen 1979 “Norseland” acrylic &
gesso on canvas / © D. Christensen
poLArstAr 1978
Acrylic and gesso on canvas, 26 2 39H in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso: D. Christensen /
“Polarstar” / 1978 / acrylic & gesso on canvas
Inscribed on stretcher: 39H x 26
ridge 1976
Acrylic on canvas, 78 2 90H in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
D. Christensen 1976 “Ridge” / 78 x 91
sAntALi 1980
Acrylic on canvas, 66I 2 62 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
© D. Christensen 1980 “Santali” acrylic on canvas
sissystrut 1980
Acrylic on canvas, 69 2 52H in.
Signed and inscribed on verso:
© D. Christensen “Sissystrut” acrylic on canvas
Inscribed on stretcher: 69 x 52H
song of ceyLon 1979
Acrylic on canvas, 73H 2 91 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
D. Christensen 1979 “Song of Ceylon” acrylic on canvas
tokyo tAttoo 1981
Acrylic on canvas, 87 2 77M in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
“Tokyo Tattoo” © D. Christensen 1981 acrylic on canvas
Inscribed on stretcher: 77I x 87
topsy pArt ii 1981
Acrylic on canvas, 67 2 69 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
© D. Christensen 1981 / Topsy Part II
trouBAdor 1988
Acrylic on canvas, 90M 2 75 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso:
© D. Christensen 1988 “Troubadour”
Inscribed on stretcher: 91 x 75
yeLLow Bower 1981
Acrylic on canvas, 71G x 40 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed on verso: acrylic
on canvas / © D. Christensen 1981 “Yellow Bower”
Inscribed on stretcher: 40 x 71G
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dAn christensen
b. 1942, Cozad, Nebraska
d. 2007, Springs, East Hampton, New York
1964, received B.F.A., Kansas City Art Institute
s e L e c t e d s o L o e X h i B i t i o n s
André Emmerich Gallery, New York, 1969, 1971,
1972, 1974, 1975, 1976.
Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada, 1973.
University of Nebraska at Omaha Art
Gallery, 1980.
Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, Inc., New York, 1981,
1982, 1983, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2000.
Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State
University, Kansas, 1984.
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown,
Ohio, Dan Christensen: A Forty Year Survey,
2001–2.
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York,
Selections From a Retrospective, 2002–3.
Spanierman Modern, New York, Dan Christensen,
2007.
Spanierman Gallery, llc at East Hampton, New
York, Sculpture by Elaine Grove and Paintings by
Dan Christensen, 2007.
Spanierman Modern, New York, Dan Christensen:
The Plaid Paintings, 2009.
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art,
Kansas City, Missouri, Dan Christensen: Forty
Years of Painting, 2009 (also shown at Sheldon
Museum of Art, University of Nebraska,
Lincoln, 2009–10).
The Armory Show, New York, Dan Christensen,
2011.
s e L e c t e d g r o u p e X h i B i t i o n s
Oberlin College, Ohio, 1966.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
Annual, 1967.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
Recent Acquisitions, 1968.
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art,
RidgeWeld, Connecticut, Highlights of the 1968–
69 Art Season, 1969.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
Annual, 1969.
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,
Biennial, 1969.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,
Theodoran Award Group, 1969.
St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts, Washington
University, Missouri (now The Mildred Lane
Kemper Art Museum), Here and Now, 1969.
The Katonah Gallery, New York, Color, 1970.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, BuValo, New York,
Color and Field 1890–1970 (also shown at the
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, and at the Cleveland
Museum, Ohio), 1970–71.
Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, Art of
the Decade 1960–70: Paintings from the Collections
of Greater Detroit, 1971.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
The Structure of Color, 1971.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
Lyrical Abstraction, 1971.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, BuValo, New York,
Six Painters (also shown at the Baltimore
Museum of Art and at the Milwaukee Art
Center), 1971–2.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Abstract Painting in
the 70s, 1972.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
Annual, 1972.
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art,
RidgeWeld, Connecticut, 1973.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
Biennial, 1973.
Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, Paintings,
1973.
Museo Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela, El lenguaje
del Color, 1975.
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
Freedom in Art, 1976.
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art,
RidgeWeld, Connecticut, Collector’s Choice, 1977.
Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada, New
Abstract Art, 1977.
University of Nebraska, Omaha, Expressionism in
the 70s, 1978.
Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, American
Masters of the Sixties and Seventies, 1978.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New Work
on Paper I (also shown at the Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston, and at the La Jolla Museum of
Contemporary Art, California), 1981.
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln, Kansas City, 1981.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Miró in
America, 1982.

Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown,
Ohio, 46th Annual National Midyear Show, 1982.
The University of Oklahoma at Norman, Points of
View: 1982, 1982.
P.S.1, New York, Special Projects, 1983.
Baruch College Gallery, New York, 1985.
Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City,
Missouri, 1985.
Spencer Museum, Lawrence, Kansas, Pop Op Plus,
1985.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Philip Johnson:
Selected Gifts, 1985.
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York,
Artists of the Region Invitational, 1986.
Grey Art Gallery, New York, 1969: A Year
Reconsidered, 1994.
P.S.1, New York, Richard Bellamy Memorial Show,
1998.
Portland Art Museum, Oregon, Clement Greenberg:
A Critic’s Collection, 2000.
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas
City, Missouri, Big Paintings, 2002.
Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada,
Edmonton Contemporary Artists Tenth Anniversary
Exhibition, 2002.
Neuesmuseum, Nürnberg, Germany, Einfach
Kunst, 2002.
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln, Big Canvas—Paintings from
the Permanent Collection, 2003.
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York,
Three East End Artists, 2003.
Spanierman Gallery, llc at East Hampton,
New York, Art and the Garden, 2005.
Spanierman Gallery, llc at East Hampton, New
York, Artists and Nature on Eastern Long Island:
1940s to the Present, 2005.
Spanierman Gallery, llc at East Hampton,
New York, Long Island Abstraction—1950s to the
Present, 2006.
Weatherspoon Art Museum Greensboro, North
Carolina, High Times Hard Times: New York
Painting, 1967–1975 (also shown at the American
University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center,
Washington, D.C., and at the National Academy
Museum, New York), 2006–7.
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California,
Colorscope: Abstract Painting, 1960–1979, 2010.
s e L e c t e d r e f e r e n c e s
Max KozloV, “Light as Surface: Ralph Humphrey
and Dan Christensen,” Artforum (February
1968), 26–30.
Ann Ray Martin and Howard Junker, “The
New Art: It’s Way, Way Out,” Newsweek 29
(July 1968), 56–63.
Barbara Rose, “Gallery without Walls,” Art in
America (March–April 1968), 71.
Emily Wasserman, “Corcoran Biennial,” Artforum
(April 1969), 71–74.
“To See, To Feel, Painting—Dervish Loops,” Time
Magazine (May 30, 1969), 64.
Grace Glueck, “Like a Beginning,” Art in America
(May–June 1969), 116–19.
“Art in New York, Midtown, Dan Christensen,”
Time Magazine (June 6, 1969), 2.
John Gruen, “The Whoosh in the Work,” New York
Magazine (June 9, 1969), 57.
Emily Wasserman, “New York,” Artforum (Summer
1969), 61–62.
Douglas M. Davis, “This is the Loose-Paint
Generation,” National Observer (August 4,
1969), 20.
Scott Burton, Art News (September 1969), 16.
Larry Aldrich, “Young Lyrical Painters,” Art in
America (November–December 1969), 104–13.
Carter RatcliV, “The New Informalists,” Art News
(February 1970), 46–50.
Charlotte Curtis, “When Ethel Scull Redecorates,
it is Art News,” New York Times, February 27,
1970, 33.
Douglas Davis, “The New Color Painters,”
Newsweek (May 4, 1970), 84–85.
Peter Plagens, Artforum (May 1970), 82–83.
Willis Domingo, “Color Abstractionism: A Survey
of Recent American Paintings,” Arts Magazine
(December 1970), 39.
Grace Glueck, “A Happy New Year?” Art in
America (January–February 1971), 26–27.
Robert Pincus-Witten, “New York,” Artforum
(April 1971), 75.
Edward B. Henning, “Color & Field,” Art
International (May 1971), 46–50.
Carter RatcliV, “New York Letter: Spring,
Part III,” Art International (Summer 1971),
95–99, 105.
Jeanne Siegel, “Around Barnett Newman,” Art
News (October 1971), 42–43.
29

30
Marcia Tucker, The Structure of Color (New York:
Whitney Museum of American Art, 1971).
James N. Wood, Six Painters (BuValo, N.Y.:
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1971).
Hilton Kramer, “Dickinson Motifs Keep Tradition
Alive,” New York Times, October 28, 1972, 23.
Jeanne Siegel, Art News (November 1972), 79.
Kenworth MoVett, Abstract Painting of the 70s
(Boston, Mass.: Museum of Fine Arts, 1972).
James K. Monte, Six New York Artists: Paintings
(Philadelphia, Pa.: Moore College of Art, 1973).
Karen Wilkin, “Dan Christensen: Recent
Paintings,” Art International (Summer 1974), 57.
Ingeborg Hoesterey, “Ausstellung,” Art International
(Summer 1976), 31–32.
Donald Doe, Expressionism in the Seventies (Omaha,
Nebr.: University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1978).
Grace Glueck, “Dan Christensen,” New York Times,
March 16, 1979, 24.
John Ashbery, “Out of Left Field,” New York
Magazine (April 2, 1979), 68.
Donald Doe, Dan Christensen: Paintings from the
70s (Omaha, Nebr.: University of Nebraska at
Omaha, 1980).
John ElderWeld, New Work on Paper 1 (New York:
Museum of Modern Art, 1981).
Hilton Kramer, “Art: Show of New Works
Sets Example at Modern,” New York Times,
February 13, 1981, 61.
Hilton Kramer, New York Times, “Art,” February 27,
1981, c17.
Kay Larson, “Drawing on Strength,” New York
Magazine (March 9, 1981), 58–61.
John Ashbery, “Pleasures of Paperwork,” Newsweek
(March 16, 1981), 93–94.
Valentin Tatransky, “New Work in New York,”
Museum Magazine (July–August 1981), 64–68.
Barbara Rose, Miró in America (Houston, Tex.:
Museum of Fine Arts, 1982).
Valentin Tatransky, “Dan Christensen,” Arts
Magazine (May 1982), 11.
Phyllis BraV, “11 East End Painters Illustrate Bold
New Trends,” New York Times, September 14,
1986, a1.
Dan Cameron, “Before the Field: Paintings from the
60s, at the Daniel Newburgh Gallery,” Flash Art
152 (May–June 1990).
Phyllis BraV, “Social and Political Situations,” New
York Times, Long Island Weekly [supplement],
June, 17, 1991, 17.
Roberta Smith, “A Color Field Painter From
the 60s to Now,” New York Times, August 2,
1991, c23.
Ruth Bass, “Dan Christensen,” Art News
(November 1991), 136.
Lee Rosenbaum, “If It’s Not Popular, That’s
Just Too Bad,” New York Times, March 7, 1993,
h33–34.
Holland Cotter, “Art in Review—‘1969: A Year
Revisited,’” New York Times, July 15, 1994, c23.
Holland Cotter, “Art in Review,” New York Times,
July 22, 1994, c24.
Hearne Pardee, “Dan Christensen,” Art News
(January 1995), 165–66.
Karen Wilkin, “At the Galleries,” Partisan Review
(Fall 1999), 640–52.
Helen A. Harrison, “Landscapes of Fantasy,
and a Devotion to Color,” New York Times,
December 8, 2002, li21.
Katherine B. Crum, Dan Christensen—ReXections
on a Retrospective (Southampton, N.Y.: Parrish
Art Museum, 2002).
Stephen Westfall, Dan Christensen (New York:
Spanierman Modern, 2007).
Elaine Grove, Dan Christensen: The Plaid Paintings
(New York: Spanierman Modern, 2009).
Sharon L. Kennedy, Douglas Drake, and
Karen Wilkin, Dan Christensen: Forty Years
of Painting (Kansas City, Mo.: Kemper
Museum of Contemporary Art, 2009).

AwA r d s
1992 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
1986 Gottlieb Foundation Grant
1969 Guggenheim Fellowship Theodoran Award
1968 National Endowment Grant
m u s e u m c o L L e c t i o n s
Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art Gallery,
St. Joseph, Missouri
Albright-Knox Gallery, BuValo, New York
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio
Art Institute of Chicago
Blanton Museum of American Art, University
of Texas at Austin
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio
Denver Museum of Art
Detroit Institute of Art
Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada
Eversen Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell
University, Ithaca, New York
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Washington, D.C.
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art,
Kansas City, Missouri
Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Switzerland
Ludwig Collection in the Wallraf-Richartz
Museum, Cologne, Germany
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Mulvane Art Museum, Washburn University,
Topeka, Kansas
Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am
Main, Germany
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney
Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
Portland Museum of Art, Oregon
Saint Louis Art Museum
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
Seattle Art Museum
Sheldon Museum of Art, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas,
Lawrence
Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia
Toledo Museum, Ohio
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
31

Published in the United States of America in 2011 by
Spanierman Modern, 53 East 58th Street, New York, NY 10022
Copyright © 2011 Spanierman Modern
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Photography: Roz Akin; Gary Mamay, pp. 13, 16, 23, 25
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