Mark Tansey
Mark Tansey ( b. 1949 in San Jose, California, USA) is an American painter. He lives and works in New York.
Mark Tansey, son of the American art critic Richard G. Tansey, studied from 1967 to 1969 on the California San Jose University and until 1972 at the College of Design in Los Angeles, California. In 1974 he continued his art studies at the graduate school of painting of Hunter College in New York continued. After this degree, he worked from 1978 to 1979 as an assistant to Helen Frankenthaler and then worked as a freelance illustrator for various newspapers and magazines. Gaining recognition as an artist Tansey received at the beginning of the 1980s. In 1982 he had his first gallery exhibition in New York. At the latest with his participation at " Aperto ", an exhibition in conjunction with the Venice Biennale in 1986, his international breakthrough. Back in 1987, Mark Tansey took part in Documenta 8 in Kassel.
Mark Tansey is understood by the critics as a typical representative of postmodern art. Tansey reflected in his figurative painting partly ironic aspects of the art and history of philosophy and often plays with the patterns of perception of his viewers'. This will, for example, in his painting "The Triumph of the New York School" ( The triumph of the New York School ) in 1984 significantly. In it he translated the international success of American art in the second half of the 20th century in the image of a military defeat of European artists against their American fellow artists of modern times. You can see a capitulation scene. The Europeans wear uniforms of World War I and sit mainly on horses, while the representatives of American art formally come along in less armored vehicle. Another level of the painting is a quote, because explicit model for the representation of the scene is a picture of Velázquez, the " surrender of the city of Breda ." Tansey realistic and often monochrome paintings have almost a photorealistic character, however, often contain a closer look " unrealistic " elements, as in the painting " Snowman" (Snowman) the portraits of Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler and George W. Bush.