Mark Tansey  (American, 1949) 

Mark Tansey (American, b.1949) is a painter best known for his monochromatic and allegorical works. Born in San Jose, CA, he was raised in a family of art historians and studied at Art Center College of Design. Inspired by the Surrealist artist René Magritte, Tansey creates elaborate allegories that draw of philosophical, literary, and historical themes, and thinkers such as Plato, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Jacques Derrida. His Forward Retreat (1986), for example, depicts horseback riders in uniforms that represent the nationalities of the most well-known artists of the 20th century. One of Tansey’s more recent works, EC 101 (2009), part of a series of ultramarine paintings, depicts the most prominent economists in history inscribed into a mountain. Tansey’s working process begins with collages, made from archived clippings and photographs, as preliminary studies for his paintings. He then brushes and scrapes paint onto the canvas in monochromatic hues. Tansey’s work is included in several collections, including the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. He lives and works in New York.