Collection: Robert Kushner

(b. 1949)

Robert Kushner is considered one of the founding members of the Pattern and Decoration movement, a genre that focused on the controversial and subversive issues concerning decoration and craft within art. The movement formed in reaction to the dominant schools of abstraction of the 1960s, which tended to dismiss ornamentation and craft, two attributes commonly associated with non-Western traditions. Heavily influenced by Islamic and European textiles, Kushner uses fabric and collage elements in his large-scale paintings. His paintings are unapologetically rich in color and form and are often characterized by his combined use of geometric abstraction and organic representation of flora.

Robert Kushner gained recognition in the 1970s for his early work in performance art. Throughout his career he has been internationally commissioned to complete a number of murals including two works at the 77th and Lexington Ave. subway station in New York as well as works at Union Square in Tokyo and he Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

Tate Modern, London, England

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY