Exploring the Art of Robert Kushner

By Marina Rybak

Every creative soul who has passionately and diligently toiled over a print-driven collection (intimate apparel especially) would acknowledge that textile prints are personal. The actual process of bringing a baby-print to life could be described either as a “labor of love” or as “belabored”, depending on its emotional history.

I have my own share of print hatching, creating original print-driven intimate apparel concepts. I also have the pleasure of partnering with so many talented textile artists. Almost instinctively I keep my eyes open for the directional surface design influences and it is no surprise that I wandered intuitively into the DC Moore Gallery in Chelsea to explore new paintings and collages by Robert Kushner on view through January 6.  Fascinated with these new editions, I was thrilled to see the ornamental, pattern elements being exalted to the status of high art – such affirming testimonial to my creative textile pals.

Robert Kushner is a prominent contemporary American artist and is one of the original founders of the anti-minimalist Pattern and Decoration Movement. Known as P&D, it bloomed from the late sixties to mid-eighties. He represents the collective family of artists who created a sumptuous alternative body of work and were inspired by everything that the world design heritage had to offer and the austere, cerebral Minimalism has rejected. Characterized by Robert Kushner as a “visual feast”, this collective creative expression was attuned to the feminine, non-Western artistic traditions, rich in color and pattern, blurred art and design boundaries and was global in content. No wonder its celebration of beauty and its multicultural approach is so inspiring.

At the DH Moore presentation I was quite taken by the lyrical, organic hand of the artist who is quite in touch with his feminine side. The use of palladium, gold and copper leaf added a subtle, orderly splendor and the patterns with history enticed me to take a sensory plunge into his paintings and collages, discovering them from within.

Most all of the pieces were already spoken for when I have arrived, attesting to the tremendous popularity of the artist. Kushner’s art is collected by the major national and international museums and his public installations are widely experienced and enjoyed.

In New York, for example, you can indulge in the culinary feast of the Gramercy Tavern and be enveloped by the visual feast of Robert Kushner’s painted murals above. Or take a subway ride to the 77th Street and Lexington Avenue station. “4 Seasons Seasoned” floral glass mosaics will greet you like a ray of sunshine.

The artist proclaimed: “My intention is for people to enter the station, pass through the turnstile, look up and take note, and then go on with their days feeling a little lighter, having glimpsed something beautiful for a passing moment.”