The Architect of Monochromatic Dreams Mark Tansey, born in San Jose, California, in 1949, occupies a singular space in the landscape of contemporary American painting. Raised in an environment steeped in art history—the son of an esteemed art historian and a librarian specializing in computerized archives—Tansey’s early life was a continuous dialogue with the visual past. This foundational intimacy with the canon allowed him to develo…