Artist
Robert Kushner
American, b. 1949
Robert Kushner is an American artist. 2 works are cataloged here, principally at Museum of Modern Art. Robert Kushner was born in Pasadena.
Overview
Robert Kushner (; born 1949, Pasadena, CA) is an American contemporary painter who is known especially for his involvement in Pattern and Decoration. He has been called "a founder" of that artistic movement. In addition to painting, Kushner creates installations in a variety of mediums, from large-scale public mosaics to delicate paintings on antique book pages.
Work
Kushner draws from a unique range of influences, including Islamic and European textiles, Henri Matisse, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Pierre Bonnard, Tawaraya Sotatsu, Ito Jakuchu, Qi Baishi, and Wu Changshuo. Kushner's work combines organic representational elements with abstracted geometric forms as a background in a way that is both decorative and modernist. He has said, “I never get tired of pursuing new ideas in the realm of ornamentation. Decoration, an abjectly pejorative dismissal for many, is a very big, somewhat defiant declaration for me. … The eye can wander, the mind think unencumbered through visual realms that are expansively and emotionally rich. Decoration has always had its own agenda, the sincere and unabashed offering of pleasure and solace."Kushner's 2010 installation, Scriptorium: Devout Exercises of the Heart, is a group of over one thousand drawings of flowers and plants on book pages that date from 1500 to 1920. The pages have been removed from discarded and damaged books of all types from around the globe. Scriptorium was exhibited in Desire at The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin. It then traveled to the Kunsthallen Brandts in Odense, Denmark before returning to the U.S. for the inaugural Chelsea exhibition at DC Moore Gallery in 2011. It was exhibited at the La Jolla Athenaeum in California in summer 2012.
Murals
Kushner has created large-scale murals for public and private spaces. In 2004, he installed two monumental mosaic murals, 4 Seasons Seasoned, at the 77th Street and Lexington Avenue subway station. He has also completed commissions at Gramercy Tavern and Maialino restaurants in New York City, Union Square in Tokyo, The Ritz Carlton Highlands in Lake Tahoe, CA, and Federal Reserve System in Washington, DC. In 2010, an eighty-foot-long marble mosaic, Welcome, was installed at the new Raleigh Durham International Airport in North Carolina. Two 2021 glass mosaics of his are displayed in Kalauao metro station on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi.
Exhibitions
Kushner's work has been exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, and Japan and has been included in the Whitney Biennial three times and twice at the Venice Biennale in Italy. He was the subject of solo exhibitions at both the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Brooklyn Museum. A mid-career retrospective of his work was organized by the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art. Most recently, Kushner’s work has been included in several national and international museum exhibitions focusing on the Pattern and Decoration movement: With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972-1985, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2019-2020); Less is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design, Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2019); Pattern and Decoration: Ornament as Promise, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung, Vienna, Austria, and Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary (2018-2019); Pattern, Decoration & Crime, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland, and Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2019).
Other work
In his early career, Kushner participated in solo and group performance art. Many of these performances featured costumes that Kushner created with craft techniques such as sewing and embroidery. His first performance, entitled Costumes for Moving Bodies, occurred in 1971 during the artist's senior exhibition at the University of California San Diego. The following year, Kushner began incorporating food into his clothing-based performances. Kushner created two performances in 1972 that featured food costumes. The first, Costumes Constructed and Eaten, was presented at the Jack Glenn Gallery in Corona del Mar, California, and the second, Robert Kushner and Friends Eat Their Clothes, in New York. Both of these performances ended with the audience eating the garments. According to the artist, the primary artistic elements of such food performances would be the “ephemeral composition of all the costumes together, the observation of their disintegration through the act of eating, and the lingering sense of gustatory titillation.” He has also published scholarly articles in a variety of publications. Most recently, he edited the publication Amy Goldin: Art in a Hairshirt (2011), a compilation of the art critic Goldin's essays. He was interviewed for the film !Women Art Revolution.
Selected bibliography
A monograph on Kushner's three decades of artistic work, Gardens of Earthly Delight, was published by Hudson Hills Press in 1997. Wild Gardens, a selection of Kushner's recent paintings with an essay by Michael Duncan, was published by Pomegranate in 2006.
Anderson-Spivy, Alexandra. “Robert Kushner: Gardens of Earthly Delight,” New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997. Robert Kushner: Silk Road, essay by Justin Spring (DC Moore Gallery, 2008). Robert Kushner, On Location, interview by Peter Eleey (DC Moore Gallery, 2007). Robert Kushner: Wild Gardens, Pomegranate, 2006, essay by Michael Duncan. Robert Kushner: Opening Doors, introduction by Bridget Moore, essay by Robert Kushner (DC Moore Gallery, 2004). Robert Kushner: Hot!! Essay by Howard Rogers (DC Moore Gallery, 2001). Robert Kushner: The Language of Flowers, essay by Donald Kuspit, foreword by Bridget Moore (DC Moore Gallery, 1998). Robert Kushner: The Language of Flowers, 1998 (exhibition catalogue) Robert Kushner: Hot!!, 2001 (exhibition catalogue) Robert Kushner: Opening Doors, 2004 (exhibition catalogue) Robert Kushner: On Location, 2007 (exhibition catalogue) Robert Kushner: Silk Road, 2009 (exhibition catalogue) Robert Kushner: New Paintings / New Collages, 2012 (exhibition catalogue)
Public collections
Kushner's work is represented in numerous important public collections worldwide, including:
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Art Collection of the United States Embassy, Panama Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC The Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO Galleria degli Ufizzi, Florence, Italy Gröninger Museum, Gröningen, the Netherlands Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, HI J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville, KY J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, CA Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany Museum Ludwig, St. Petersburg, Russia Museum Moderner Kunst - Palais Lichtenstein, Vienna, Austria The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO Neue-Galerie-Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen, Germany The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA Orlando Museum of Art, Florida Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Rockefeller Center, New York, NY San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL State of Hawaii St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, Amsterdam, Holland The Tate Gallery, London, England Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
Notable solo exhibitions
2021
“Robert Kushner: I Heart Matisse,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, May 6 – June 12, 2021 2019
“Robert Kushner: By My Window,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, October 10 – November 9, 2019 2018
“Robert Kushner: Reverie: Dupatta-topia,” Texas Gallery, Houston, TX, November 29, 2018 – January 5, 2019 “Robert Kushner: Reverie: Dupatta-topia,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, May 3 – June 16, 2018 “A Mist of Unknowing,” 8 / ART GALLERY / Tomio Koyama Gallery: Tokyo, Japan, April 4 – 30, 2018 “Tracery and Plane: Paintings by Robert Kushner,” Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, February 8 – March 23, 2018 2017
“Robert Kushner: Portraits & Perennials,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, February 9 – March 11, 2017 Robert Kushner at 375 Hudson Street / Saatchi & Saatchi Building, New York, NY, November 28, 2017 – May, 2018 2016
“Robert Kushner,” Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, NC, March 11 – April 23, 2016 2015
Galleri DGV, Svendborg, Denmark “Tenderness and Thorns,” Hakusasonso Hashimoto Museum, Kyoto, Japan, September 9 – 27, 2015 “Robert Kushner: Pleasure and Solace,” Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA, June 16 – September 12, 2015 “Robert Kushner: baroque,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, January 8- February 14, 2015 “Robert Kushner: Paintings & Collages,” Texas Gallery, Houston, TX, May 14 – June 20, 2015 “Robert Kushner: Patois,” Off Ramp Gallery, Pasadena, CA, April 12 – May 17, 2015 2014
“Robert Kushner: Treasures, Souvenirs, Memories – New Collages,” October 1 – 25, Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, Japan “Robert Kushner: Paintings 2010-2013 & The Four Seasons,” January 10 – April 12, 2014, Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH 2012
“Robert Kushner: New Paintings/New Collages,” November 8 – December 21, 2012, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY “Robert Kushner: New Work,” September 7 – October 6, 2012, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL “Robert Kushner's Scriptorium: Devout Exercises of the Heart,” June 23 – July 28, Joseph Clayes III Gallery, La Jolla Athenaeum, La Jolla, CA “Robert Kushner: Wildflowers / Garden Flowers,” June 30 – August 4, Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, NM 2011
"Robert Kushner: Wildflower Convocation," February 3 - March 12, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY “Robert Kushner, Flora Dreams: Paintings and Works on Paper,” February 26 – April 9, Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, NC “Robert Kushner: 30 Literary Nudes,” April 16 – May 28, 2011, Luis De Jesus, Santa Monica, CA 2009
“Robert Kushner: Paintings and Works on Paper,” van Straaten Gallery, Denver, CO “Robert Kushner: Caravansarai,” Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, NM “Robert Kushner,” Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC “Robert Kushner: Silk Road,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY “Robert Kushner: New Work,” Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL 2007
“Robert Kushner,” Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC "Robert Kushner: On Location," DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY 2006
“Robert Kushner: Winter Bouquets,” Sandy Carson Gallery, Denver, CO “Robert Kushner: Red Series,” Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, Japan 2005
“Robert Kushner,” Gallery Camino Real, Boca Raton, FL “Robert Kushner,” Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, MA 2004
“Robert Kushner: Opening Doors,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY Gallery Camino Real, Boca Raton, FL Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL “Robert Kushner: New BYOBU Paintings,” Takada Gallery, San Francisco, CA Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, Japan 2003
“Robert Kushner - Sliding Doors: Homage to John Cage,” DC Moore
Collections represented
Museum
Artists in a similar vein
