Lew Allen Gallery feature of the week: Noted color field painter Dan Christiansen.

Dan Christensen, Untitled, 1988, acrylic on canvas, 12 x 59 in FEATURE OF THE WEEK Dan Christensen (1942–2007) is widely recognized as one of America’s foremost color abstractionists. A master innovator at the center of important developments in American abstract painting, he was a key figure in "Post-Painterly Abstraction," constantly inventing new visual languages such as his acclaimed "ribbon" and "loop" paintings, and credited with helping to “save” painting at a time when many in the art world were proclaiming its premature “death.” Born in Cozad, Nebraska, he achieved spectacular success early in his career, including two Whitney Biennials before the age of 26 and major awards. The great critic Clement Greenberg anointed him in 1990 as “one of the painters on whom the course of American art depends.” The work Untitled, 1988 is a prime example of his later Spray series (1988–1994). This compelling horizontal composition showcases Christensen’s remarkable fluency with color and form. In this work, Christensen uses a spray gun to create soft, shimmering, and deliberately blurred lines that loop and swirl across the canvas, reminiscent of his earliest acclaimed works when his use of the spray gun as an alternative way of applying paint to a canvas was heralded as being as innovatively pioneering as Pollock’s splatters and drips before him. The overall effect of the colored lines against the background continues his exploration of the Color Field movement's emphasis on luminous color.

MORE FROM DAN CHRISTENSEN Dan Christensen, Bend Two, 1978, acrylic on canvas, 53 x 81 in Dan Christensen, Blue Clover (detail), 1990, acrylic on canvas, 46.5 x 78.5 in Dan Christensen, Untitled, 1978, acrylic on canvas, 57 x 59 x 1 in

The composition embodies what Christensen described as "the harmonious turbulence of the universe," with the lines appearing to spin, pulse, or float in a cosmic atmosphere. This work is a testament to the artist's continuous experimentation with technique and his mastery of manipulating paint to create vibrant, energetic, and visually complex abstract compositions.  Christensen’s work is included in numerous public collections, including the Guggenheim, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among many others.

PREVIOUS FEATURES OF THE WEEK DIRK DE BRUYCKER Surrender Inquire about work BRIAN RUTENBERG Pholx 3 Inquire about work

Dirk de Bruycker, Surrender (detail), 2015, 84 x 72 in Brian Rutenberg,​ Phlox 3 (detail), 2016, oil on linen, 82 x 60 in   ©2026 LewAllen Galleries | Artwork © The Estates of the artists pictured

LewAllen Galleries 1613 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.988.3250 Mon - Fri  10 - 6 / Sat 10 - 5 Inquire   #lewallengallery#danchristiansenartists#sunstormfineartmagazine #fineartmagazineblog.blogspot

Lew Allen Galleries opens Katherines Poeter :Paper Works, February 27, 2026

Opening Today, Friday, February 27th, 2026 KATHERINE PORTER: Paper Works KATHERINE PORTER: Paper Works Opening Today, Friday, February 27th, 2026 The paintings and works on paper created by Katherine Porter (1941-2024) stand as one of the significant bodies of work in American Color Abstraction. Her place as one of its most distinguished women practitioners is marked by a remarkable career spanning nearly six decades. Her paintings and works on paper are held within the permanent collections of more than forty important national and international museums.   Her works on paper channel the complexities of her times into signal expressions resulting in high-energy oils and mixed media – pulsating with vibrant kinetic energy and employing a unique visual vocabulary: equal parts geometric, chromatic, and gestural. The noted late art historian Lydia Csato Gasman once described Porter's output as "the vast domain of spontaneity untamed." The artist took chaos and, through a remarkable capacity for creative spontaneity, transformed the subject into sheer brilliance. The expression demonstrates a rare virtuosity of creative freedom blended with technical discipline. The work serves as her personal cri de coeur, cry of the heart, for a better world.    View Exhibition

OTHER EXHIBITIONS NOW ON VIEW HERMAN MARIL Legacy of an American Modernist View Exhibition FORREST MOSES The Artful Heart View Exhibition

ANIMATION: Katherine Porter, Global Warming, 2000, oil on paper, 29.5 x 25 in Katherine Porter, Kingdom (detail), 1997-98, mixed media on paper, 45.5 x 42.5 in  Katherine Porter, Untitled (detail), 1977, mixed media on paper, 20.5 x 27.75 in     EXHIBITIONS: Herman Maril, Kendall Lane Beach / Cape Beach (detail), 1976, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in Forrest, Moses, A Bit of Stream, 2012, oil on canvas, 50 x 52 in   ©2026 LewAllen Galleries | Artwork ©The Estates of the artists pictured

LewAllen Galleries 1613 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.988.3250 Mon - Fri  10 - 6 / Sat 10 - 5