Dan Christensen, 64; innovative artist used spray gun to apply color

Dan Christensen, 64, a painter who stretched the styles of the New York School by using a spray gun to apply loops of colors onto canvas, died Jan. 20 in East Hampton, N.Y., of heart failure resulting from a muscle disease, according to the Spanierman Modern gallery in Manhattan, which is exhibiting his work.

Christensen’s works, which sell for up to $150,000 each, also have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, both in New York, and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

Born in Cozad, Neb., Christensen decided to become a painter after seeing Jackson Pollock’s work during a trip to Colorado. Christensen graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1964 and moved to New York the next year.

By 1967, he had started using a spray gun to paint the colorful loops that became his artistic signature. He started by spraying over pieces of tape which, when removed, left a series of tightly wound loops that spilled into freer brushes of color.

His later works evolved into bold splashes of expression, with colors shaped into soft circles or a translucent, improvised delicacy.