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{{short description|American painter (born 1949)}}
{{essay|date=May 2013}}
{{BLP refimprovesources|date=May 2013}}
{{Infobox artist
| bgcolour = #6495ED
| name = Mark Tansey
| image =
[[File:The.Riddle.Of.The.Sphinx.jpg|thumb]]
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth-date year and age||dt=1949}}
| birth_place = [[San Jose, California]]
| death_date =
| death_place =
| field = [[Painting]], [[Physical model|Modelingmodeling]], [[Smeltingsmelting]]▼
| nationality = [[United States|American]]
▲| field = [[Painting]], [[Physical model|Modeling]], [[Smelting]]
| training =
| movement =
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'''Mark Tansey''' (born 1949, [[San Jose, California|San Jose]], [[California]]){{cn|date=September 2015}}<ref>{{Cite web|title = Mark Tansey - The Broad Art Foundation|url = http://broadartfoundation.org/artist_76.html|website = broadartfoundation.org|accessdateaccess-date = 2015-09-08|url-status = dead|archiveurlarchive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150703112313/http://broadartfoundation.org/artist_76.html|archivedatearchive-date = 2015-07-03}}</ref> is an [[United States|American]] painter.
 
== Early life and education ==
== Life ==▼
Mark Tansey was born in San Jose, California to Richard G. Tansey, an art historian, and [[Luraine Tansey]], a slide librarian who invented one of the first computerized slide archives.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Hoban |first=Phoebe |date=1997-04-27 |title=The Wheel Turns: Painting Paintings About Painting |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/27/arts/the-wheel-turns-painting-paintings-about-painting.html |access-date=2024-03-06 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Raised in an artistic family, Tansey had an early introduction to art. He attended Saturday art classes at the [[San Francisco Art Institute]] in his early teen years and made a habit of regularly visiting art museums in the area.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Mark Tansey {{!}} Widewalls |url=https://www.widewalls.ch/artists/mark-tansey |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.widewalls.ch |language=en}}</ref> Beginning in 1969, Tansey spent three years studying at the [[ArtCenter College of Design]] in Los Angeles. After graduating, Tansey worked as an assistant at the [[San Jose State University]] Gallery. There he became well acquainted with the art that would later influence much of his work. He moved to New York in 1974 and attended [[Hunter College]] in New York for their graduate studio art program.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2018-04-12 |title=Mark Tansey |url=https://gagosian.com/artists/mark-tansey/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=Gagosian |language=en}}</ref> There, Tansey continued his examination of the historic art introduced to him by his parents, as well as modern painting and sculpture techniques and artists. Tansey also worked briefly as [[Helen Frankenthaler]]'s assistant.<ref name=":0" />
Tansey had an early introduction to art. These early childhood experiences had a profound effect on Tansey's painting style from the inception of his career as an artist. Many of Tansey's paintings are monochromatic and seem old-fashioned.<ref name="Next After This">{{cite web|last=Tansey|first=Mark|title=PROFILE Mark Tansey|url=http://www.next-after-this.com/2011/09/profile-mark-tansey.html|publisher=Next After This|accessdate=2012-05-01}}</ref> His method involves laying down a layer of monochrome pigment on canvas that can be altered easily only before it dries. This leaves Tansey only about a six-hour window in which to complete his alterations.<ref name="Art Daily.Org">{{cite web|last=|first=|title=Exhibition of Recent Paintings by Mark Tansey at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills|url=http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=46983|publisher=Art Daily|date=May 2, 2011|accessdate=2012-05-01}}</ref> As such, he works in a style similar to fresco painters, painting in segments that he can finish in this short time frame. Tansey's choice of color and tone lends a specific feeling to each painting.
 
▲== LifeProcess ==
Tansey lives in a two story studio in downtown [[New York City]]<ref name="Next After This"/> and works there from late afternoon throughout the night almost every day. The first floor of his studio is reserved for final paintings only, while the second floor is where he creates all of the preparatory sketches and variations that inspire his completed works. He derives his inspiration from photographic reproductions and magazine clippings, and works in stages of small sketches and drawings until he is prepared for the final painting.
In 1980, Tansey began developing his signature monochromatic, photo-inspired style.<ref name=":0" /> His first finished work in this signature style, "A Short History of Modernist Painting,<nowiki>''</nowiki> was acquired by prestigious art museums like the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] only four years after its completion.<ref name=":0" /> Tansey's art begins as he collages different source images together, sometimes warping and distorting them in the process. He derives his inspiration from photographic reproductions and magazine clippings, and works in stages of small sketches and drawings until he is prepared for the final painting. His method involves various techniques of laying down monochromatic paint onto a canvas covered in [[gesso]].<ref name="Art Daily.Org">{{cite web |last= |first= |date=May 2, 2011 |title=Exhibition of Recent Paintings by Mark Tansey at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills |url=http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=46983 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923183910/http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=46983 |archive-date=2016-09-23 |access-date=2012-05-01 |publisher=Art Daily}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mark Tansey - Bio {{!}} The Broad |url=https://www.thebroad.org/art/mark-tansey |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.thebroad.org}}</ref> He blocks out the general forms of the piece and then carefully removes varying layers of paint to form the final product. Due to the fast-drying properties of gesso, Tansey only has about a six-hour window in which to complete his alterations to a composition. As such, he works in a style similar to fresco painters, painting in segments that he can finish in this short time frame.<ref name=":1" /> Tansey has been praised for the "near-photographic precision" of his paintings.<ref name=":2" />
 
== EducationNotable works ==
Tansey's paintings normally depict everyday or historical occurrences, though they typically reveal certain oddities under closer scrutinization.<ref name="Art Daily.Org" /> He argues that representation has other functions rather than "capturing the real."{{cite quote|date=October 2022}} He argues that his work is about "how different realities interact with each other."{{cite quote|date=October 2022}}▼
From the time he was a young child, Tansey knew that he wanted to continue the family tradition and pursue a future in the art industry. He attended Saturday art classes at the San Francisco Art Institute in his early teen years and made a habit of regularly visiting art museums in the area. Beginning in 1969, Tansey spent three years studying at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. There his works portrayed a deep interest in the appropriation and simulation of media which was a style that did not become popular until the 1980s. His early concern with this technique displays Tansey's deep understanding of art history and the development of art over time.{{cn|date=May 2013}}
 
One of Tansey's most potent pieces from thishis early period is ''[[The Last Judgement]]'' (1971), which he created from oil on masonite. He was inspired by [[Michelangelo]]'s fresco in the [[Sistine Chapel]] and proceeded to reproduce it in 32 rectangular sections. These were placed on display, arranged four across and eight tall. The entire study was done in shades of grey and brown. For Tansey, this project was "a synthesis of photographic, illustrative, and painterly qualities… The meaning of the work resided in the process of re-translation- reinterpretation reproduction- rather than in its perceptual equivalence to reality."{{cite quote|date=May 2013}} In producing this piece, Tansey "discovered the notion of the 'unlimited brush'- any object able to carry paint could function as a brush… touch was equivalent to light… scraping off the paint let the white ground show through."{{cite quote|date=May 2013}} This technique becomes the basis for many of his later paintings. In this stepwise process, the overwhelming and complex fresco that Tansey saw in the Sistine Chapel was broken down into a methodological and grid-like cacophony of figures.▼
After graduating, Tansey worked as an assistant at the San Jose State University Gallery. There he became well acquainted with the art that would later influence much of his work. In 1974, Tansey enrolled in the graduate program at Hunter College in New York City. He spent four years studying there, in what was possibly the top graduate art program of the era. There Tansey continued his examination of the historic art introduced to him by his parents, as well as modern painting and sculpture techniques and artists.
 
At first glance, Tansey's distinctive paintings appear to depict straight narrative scenes but closer scrutiny reveals an undercurrent of quirks and visual puns.{{cncitation needed|date=May 2013}} By thus manipulating the conventions and structures of figurative painting, he creates corollaries for literary, philosophical, and historical concepts in visual allegories about the nature and implications of perception, meaning, and interpretation in art.▼
== Work ==
▲Tansey's paintings normally depict everyday or historical occurrences, though they typically reveal certain oddities under closer scrutinization.<ref name="Art Daily.Org" /> He argues that representation has other functions rather than "capturing the real." He argues that his work is about "how different realities interact with each other."
 
His work is in major collections including [[Modern Art Museum]], in [[Fort Worth]]; [[Walker Art Center]], in [[Minneapolis]]; [[Broad Art Foundation]], in [[Los Angeles]]; and [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]], in [[Washington D.C.]] Solo exhibitions include [[Kunsthalle Museum]], in [[Basel]] (1990); "Mark Tansey: Art and Source", [[Seattle Art Museum]], in [[Washington (state)|Washington]] (1990, traveled to [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]], [[Canada]], [[St. Louis Art Museum]], in [[Missouri]], [[Walker Art Center]], [[Minneapolis]], [[Minnesota]], [[List Visual Art Center, MIT]], in [[MIT, Cambridge]], [[Massachusetts]], and [[Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth]], in [[Texas]] through 1991); [[Fisher Landau Center for Art]], in [[Long Island City]], [[New York (state)|New York]] (2005) and [[Museum Kurhaus Kleve]], [[Germany]] (2005, traveled to [[Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart|Württembergischer Kunstverein]], in [[Stuttgart, Germany]]).{{cncitation needed|date=May 2013}}▼
▲One of Tansey's most potent pieces from this early period is ''[[The Last Judgement]]'' (1971), which he created from oil on masonite. He was inspired by [[Michelangelo]]'s fresco in the [[Sistine Chapel]] and proceeded to reproduce it in 32 rectangular sections. These were placed on display, arranged four across and eight tall. The entire study was done in shades of grey and brown. For Tansey, this project was "a synthesis of photographic, illustrative, and painterly qualities… The meaning of the work resided in the process of re-translation- reinterpretation reproduction- rather than in its perceptual equivalence to reality."{{cite quote|date=May 2013}} In producing this piece, Tansey "discovered the notion of the 'unlimited brush'- any object able to carry paint could function as a brush… touch was equivalent to light… scraping off the paint let the white ground show through."{{cite quote|date=May 2013}} This technique becomes the basis for many of his later paintings. In this stepwise process, the overwhelming and complex fresco that Tansey saw in the Sistine Chapel was broken down into a methodological and grid-like cacophony of figures.
 
His 1984 painting ''[[Action Painting II]]'' hangs in the contemporary art section of the [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Catalogue entry|url=https://www.mbam.qc.ca/collections/art-contemporain-international/#detail-3539}}</ref>
▲At first glance, Tansey's distinctive paintings appear to depict straight narrative scenes but closer scrutiny reveals an undercurrent of quirks and visual puns.{{cn|date=May 2013}} By thus manipulating the conventions and structures of figurative painting, he creates corollaries for literary, philosophical, and historical concepts in visual allegories about the nature and implications of perception, meaning, and interpretation in art.
 
▲His work is in major collections including [[Modern Art Museum]], [[Fort Worth]]; [[Walker Art Center]], [[Minneapolis]]; [[Broad Art Foundation]], [[Los Angeles]]; and [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]], [[Washington D.C.]] Solo exhibitions include [[Kunsthalle Museum]], [[Basel]] (1990); "Mark Tansey: Art and Source", [[Seattle Art Museum]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]] (1990, traveled to [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]], [[Canada]], [[St. Louis Art Museum]], [[Missouri]], [[Walker Art Center]], [[Minneapolis]], [[Minnesota]], [[List Visual Art Center]], [[MIT, Cambridge]], [[Massachusetts]], and [[Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth]], [[Texas]] through 1991); [[Fisher Landau Center for Art]], [[Long Island City]], [[New York (state)|New York]] (2005) and [[Museum Kurhaus Kleve]], [[Germany]] (2005, traveled to [[Württembergischer Kunstverein]], [[Stuttgart, Germany]]).{{cn|date=May 2013}}
 
In the 1970s, influenced by the work of [[René Magritte|René Magritte's]] eight methods, he began to search for ways of displaying oppositions and contradictions as the motivation for a painting. From this he decided that illustration and representation were fundamentally necessary to heal the rift between art and practice, between symbol and meaning.
 
The implication is that he as an artist is searching for a "drive" to incorporate in his subjects, that would engage the viewer intellectually, while avoiding simple visual methods and opting for a more subtle and, consequently, more sophisticated and effective approach. Most of his paintings can readily be used as examples of that approach, where at first glance nothing is out of ordinary, but then it becomes apparent that certain elements are out of context, while remaining coherent visually, thus creating the conflict.{{cncitation needed|date=May 2013}}
 
== Criticism ==
As much praise as Tansey has received for his art, he has received criticism as well. Tansey successfully broke into the art field in the early 1980s, but due to his consistency in themes, style, and humor, his paintings started receiving more criticism as early as 1990. John Miller, a contributor for [[Artforum]] magazine, bemoaned Tansey's unsuccessful attempt to "dumb down" complex issues through the humor in his art.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=John |date=1990-06-08 |title=Mark Tansey |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/mark-tansey-4-219630/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref> Art critic and former editor of Artforum, David Frankel, said of Tansey in 1997, "I confess that the surfaces of Tansey’s paintings look less convincing to me than they did; their thinness, alternately washy and scratchy, has lost authority through the absence of slathery neo-Expressionism to bounce against."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Frankel |first=David |date=1997-11-01 |title=Mark Tansey |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/mark-tansey-210738/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Grace Glueck]] described an exhibition about Tansey's art-making process as "a display that should occasion many a yawn among viewers."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Glueck |first=Grace |date=2000-03-24 |title=ART IN REVIEW; Mark Tansey -- 'Graphs' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/24/arts/art-in-review-mark-tansey-graphs.html |access-date=2024-03-06 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
 
== References ==
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* [http://amyscott.com/mark_tansey.htm Brief essay by Amy Scott], ''amyscott.com''
* [http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?searchtype=BIO&artist=31232 AskArt entry]
* [http://www.widewalls.ch/artist/mark-tansey/ Mark Tansey on Widewalls]
* [http://www.gagosian.com/artists/mark-tansey "Mark Tansey: Artist Biography" (& links to other pages)], [[Gagosian Gallery]] website.
* [https://www.moca.org/artist/mark-tansey "Triumph Over Mastery" (1986)], [https://www.moca.org/collection/work/triumph-over-mastery Accession number: 87.4] (no image), [[Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles]] website.
* Marini, Alexandra, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120203234154/http://www.next-after-thisannualartmagazine.com/2011/09/profile-mark-tansey.html/ "Profile | Mark Tansey"], ''next-after-thisannualartmagazine.com'', September 16, 20112010–11.
* Marini, Alexandra, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120203234154/http://www.annualartmagazine.com/mark-tansey/ "Mark Tansey"], ''annualartmagazine.com'', 2010-11.
 
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:1949 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Postmodern20th-century artistsAmerican painters]]
[[Category:21st-century American painters]]
[[Category:American postmodern artists]]
[[Category:Artists from San Jose, California]]
[[Category:Painters from California]]
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