Christopher Wool

Christopher Wool is widely recognised as one of the most influential abstract painters of the modern era. He is probably best known for painting large black letters stencilled on white canvases.

He has developed various signature techniques for the visual representation of language, and uses a wide array of experimental media to paint including spray cans, silkscreen, hand painting, aluminium, varnish, photography, paint rollers and stencils. His style is loosely based on urban street art and can include imperfections such as overprinting, slipping and clogging, which he embraces as the grand archetypes of traditional painting.

Wool's development and experimentation with process-based painting has been met with huge critical acclaim, and has helped to pave the way for other younger artists.

Having studied painting in New York, first under Richard Pousette-Dart and later with Abstract Expressionist painters Jack Twokov and Harry Kramer, Christopher Wool made his name in 1980s' New York, rising to prominence just as the conceptual and minimal movement took off and many American artists were turning away from paint as a medium. He, on the other hand, engaged with painting, along with other young artists such as Richard Prince and Jean-Michel Basquiat, to take the medium to a new level.