Beschreibung:

Mark Tansey Coastline Measure 1987 oil on canvas 87 x 122 in. (221 x 309.9 cm.) Signed, titled and dated "Tansey 1987 'Coastline Measure'" on the reverse.
Provenance Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York Tom Patchett, Los Angeles Private Collection Exhibited Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mark Tansey Retrospective, June 17 – August 29, 1993 then traveled to Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum (September 10 – November 7, 1993), Fort Worth, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (December 9, 1993 – February 20, 1994), Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (May 11 – August 7, 1994), Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (September 8 – November 20, 1994) New York, New York Academy of Art, The Big Picture, January 28 – March 9, 2014 Literature C. Marcus, “Mark Tansey,” Artscribe International, The University of Michigan, 1988, p. 87 A. Danto, Mark Tansey Visions and Revisions, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992, p. 97 (illustrated) J. Freeman, Mark Tansey exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1993, p. 37, no. 15 (illustrated) M. Fortun, H. Bernstein, Muddling Through: Pursing Science and Truth in the 21st Century, Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 1998, cover (illustrated) M. Taylor, The Picture in Question: Mark Tansey and the Ends of Representation, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999, p. 106 M. Taylor, Rewiring the Real: In Conversation with William Gaddis, Richard Powers, Mark Danielewski, and Don DeLillo, New York, Columbia University Press, 2013, p. 107 Catalogue Essay "I think of the painted picture as an embodiment of the very real problem that we face with the notion of 'reality.' The problem or question is, which reality?" MARK TANSEY 1992 Conceived at both the height and greatest turning point of Mark Tansey’s career, Coastline Measure, 1987 is Tansey at his most inventive and virtuosic. Beginning that year, Tansey began to intentionally incorporate dissonant elements in his paintings with unprecedented frequency, launching his work from the realm of post-modern excellence into a visionary space of its own, where subject and style fuse into a profound statement on the mission of the artist in today’s world. Layering humor, beauty, and allegory into his work in equal measure, Tansey presents a historically loaded scene of humanity engaged with sublime nature, each attempting to outdo one another rendered in jewel tone monochrome. For this reason, the present lot is one of Tansey’s most enduring and poignant works, grappling with eternal themes as great as painting itself. By 1987, Tansey had been working for the better part of two decades, developing a singular style as a painter. Indeed, in the nearly thirty years that have passed since the inception of the present lot, Tansey has altered his technique itself very little, having solidified his manner of working a decade prior. Many have compared Tansey’s working method to that of a fresco painter, emphasizing the temporal dependence of his decision-making. Even prior to his execution, Tansey’s generation of imagery and scope has its roots in his collection photographs and documents—a testament to his remarkable self-sufficiency in finding subject matter: “Before he begins a painting, Mr. Tansey creates an elaborate collage of images that he has collected over the years…the purpose of this optical ambiguity is to encourage multiple and sometimes conflicting readings of the same picture.”(M. Fineman, “Art: Close Reading; Find the Hidden Philosophers”, The New York Times, December 12, 2004) From the onset, Tansey aims to create a dichotomous world, one in which the viewers will find multiple reasons to remain engaged—and argumentative. His painstakingly rendered canvasses are the result of a completely standardized process, rare in its ability to repeatedly elicit equally stunning and differentiated works: though it would appear that his canvasses are blank, Tansey has already laid down a layer of gesso. Upon the gesso, he applies a layer of monochromatic pigment across the entire space of the surface, readying himself to begin his signature technical choice: instead of applyi