Mark Tansey, A Brief History

Mark Tansey was born in San Jose, California in 1949. His parents were both art historians, so he 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. 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. 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.

Mark Tansey was born in San Jose, California in 1949. His parents were both art historians, so he had an early introduction to art. These early childhood experiences with art had a profound effect on Tansey's painting style from the inception of his career as an artist.

From the time he was a young child, Mark 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 a style that did not become popular until the 1980's. His early concern with this technique displays Tansey's deep understanding of art history and the development of art over time.

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. These pieces were produced by William Allen, William Wiley and Foulkes.

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 retranslation- reinterprative reproduction- rather than in its perceptual equivalence to reality." (Sims, pg.7) 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." (Sims, pg. 7) 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.

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.

Tansey's art reflects this melding of modern with traditional art. While attending Hunter College, he made a scale reproduction of part of his textbook, The Structure of Art, in acrylic on paper. He also painted a series of ten by ten inch pieces that analyzed methods of representation and illusion through differences in perspective. He filled notebooks with human gestures and made collages of magazine clippings and book pages. These he organized into files centering on specific themes and has covered over 125 themes thus far. When looking for inspiration for new paintings, he references these notebooks and works from them.

Tansey acquired a two story studio in downtown New York City 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.

Many of Tansey's paintings are monochromatic and seem old-fashioned. Tansey lays down a layer of monochrome pigment on canvas that can be altered easily only before it dries. This leaves him only about a six hour window in which to complete his alterations. As such, he works in a style similar to fresco painters, painting in segments that he can finish in this short time frame. Tansey creates his images by pulling away and wiping pigment, so that various textures and tones are produced on the canvas. He adds pigment to darken certain areas; and when he wipes away pigment, the white of the canvas shows through the thin layer of paint to lighten the area. This process is, by nature, largely subtractive.

Tansey also produces numerous studies of his own works. These studies are not exact reproductions; rather, each brings a certain nuance to the piece. Whether Tansey changes the tonality, texture, scale, or focuses on one specific section, the change in perspective brings new beauty to the works.

Tansey's monochromatic style is reminiscent of a photographer's conscious selection of photo paper. In photography there is warmtone and cooltone paper and the photographer chooses the tint or tone of the image based on the emotional reaction he is attempting to evoke from the audience. Here too, Tansey's choice of color and tone lends a specific feeling to each painting and hints at the circumstances surrounding the scene. In his painting Forward Retreat, 1986, Tansey uses red tones that elicit images of blood and danger. It lends a certain urgency to the battle that is not actually depicted in the painting itself. In fact, the scene's composition, which shows the soldiers reflected in a shallow pool, has an air of mild serenity. This juxtaposition of danger and battle with the contradictory serenity of still water heightens the meaning of the red painting. Tansey's methodological analysis and continuous reinterpretation of art, both new and old, is refreshing.

Works Cited:
Danto, Arthur C., Mark Tansey Visions and Revisions, Harry N. Abrams Inc., New York, 1992.
Sims, Patterson, Mark Tansey Art and Sources, Graphic Arts Center, Oregon, 1990.
Http://www.broadartfoundation.org/collection/tansey.html

Forward Retreat, 1986
oil on canvas
94 x 116 inches

MG