Untitled 1966

Dan Christensen made this untitled painting using brown paint on canvas. I wonder, did he make those marks with a brush, or was he using some kind of tool? It reminds me of sheet music, but instead of notes, there's a minimalist pattern of marks on each staff. Looking at this, I get a sense of quiet repetition. I imagine him, his mind wandering, making the same marks over and over again. It makes me think of the minimalist composers like Steve Reich or Philip Glass, who explore what happens when you repeat a simple phrase again and again and again. Was Christensen thinking about those guys? Hard to say! But that's the thing about painting, right? It's just one artist after another, riffing off each other, taking little bits and pieces, and making something new.