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Pavo
Artist
Dan Christensen
(American, 1942 - 2007)
Date1968
MediumAcrylic on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 108 × 132 in. (274.32 × 335.28 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase
Object number2016.3
Status
Not on viewCopyright© The Estate of Dan Christensen
Category
Label TextA leading artist of American Color Field painting, Dan Christensen spurned the minimalist impulse toward the end of the 1960s in pursuit of new expressive realms in abstract painting. He became famous for painting with an industrial spray gun, laying down coiling lines of vaporous color in sinuous, rhythmic patterns across the canvas surface. To make the Modern’s Pavo, 1968, he used the entire length of his arm to spray large, spiraling loops of red, yellow, and blue paint whose densely concentrated, overlapping contours create a vibrant, shimmering optical effect.
The advent of the aerosol paint can after World War II opened new avenues for painting. Christensen’s use of the spray gun beginning in 1967 followed the adventurous examples of John Chamberlain, Jules Olitski, David Smith, and other artists who expanded the gestural legacy of the Abstract Expressionists by harnessing the creative possibilities of pressurized paint application. Christensen’s “spray-loop” paintings are reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s “drip” compositions in their action painting technique and allover surface patterning, but Christensen replaced the tempestuous gesture of Pollock’s flung splatters with the cool, depersonalized precision of the spray gun.
The advent of the aerosol paint can after World War II opened new avenues for painting. Christensen’s use of the spray gun beginning in 1967 followed the adventurous examples of John Chamberlain, Jules Olitski, David Smith, and other artists who expanded the gestural legacy of the Abstract Expressionists by harnessing the creative possibilities of pressurized paint application. Christensen’s “spray-loop” paintings are reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s “drip” compositions in their action painting technique and allover surface patterning, but Christensen replaced the tempestuous gesture of Pollock’s flung splatters with the cool, depersonalized precision of the spray gun.