Berry Campbell is pleased to announce its fourth exhibition of paintings by Dan Christensen, focusing on his spray paintings from 1988 through 1994. In the late 1960s, Christensen became known amongst dealers, collectors and museums for his innovative use of the spray gun, creating colorful swirling, swooping lines on large-scale canvases. After experimenting in this and other media/techniques for decades, Christensen decided to revisit the sole use of the spray gun. Re-exploring the union of color and form, line and paint. Created during a time when Christensen was settled in his life and well-established in his art, the sprays he created between 1988 and 1994 seem outward- rather than inward-driven, suggestive of an artist reflecting not as much on himself as on the cosmic and eternal.
The works from this show fall into three groups: spray portraits and sprays with single or multiple spheres. The spray portraits consist of orbs surrounded by concentric circles, cut off at a work’s edges to imply a sense of limitless space. In these images, Christensen explored scale with reference to the figurative art of his early career. One of Christensen’s most notable examples of his spray portraits is Blue Boy, 1988, in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Christensen’s lyrical abstract painting references Gainsborough’s iconic Blue Boy, 1770, in the collection of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Single-spot sprays are necessarily centripetal, but they are far from inert. These single spots call to mind the targets of Jasper Johns and Kenneth Noland, but Christensen animated this form with his own stamp, producing blurred shapes that seem to spin and react magnetically and atmospherically. Multi-spot works are relationship-driven. Some consist of two equal spheres, while other works feature two or more unequal shapes, undulating and pulsing across the surface of the canvas.
When Christensen was pressed for an explanation of the meaning of his art, he may have had the sprays of 1988 through 1994 in mind in the answer he provided: “the harmonious turbulence of the universe.” As his friend, the art dealer Douglas Drake recalled, the phrase, which he may have coined or borrowed, became almost his mantra. Dan Christensen: The Harmonious Turbulence of the Universe | Spray Paintings (1988-1994) opens February 10 and continues through March 12, 2022. Berry Campbell represents the Estate of Dan Christensen.
