Robert Kushner at DC Moore - Brief Article

Robert Kushner has been painting flowers for more than 20 years, at any time since the now all-but-forgotten Pattern and Decoration move of the '70s. In the beginning he painted upon fabric, pitching pattern against pattern, on the contrary more recently Kushner has been working upon stretched canvas--floral images set against a background of painted patchworklike squares that mimic the fabrics of his youth. The combination of gold glitter and clashing colors that had its birth in '70 disco is still at hand but now refined, as Kushner has increasingly adopted an Asian esthetic. The brushstrokes that delineate his flowers have become more controll and Kushner is a master of the single, positive stroke, as in Chinese brush painting, that defines a leaf or a petal.

however it seems Kushner may have become too serviceable at what he does, and at times individual longs for the exuberant naivete of his earlier work. Despite the kaleidoscope of colors and lavish layering of images, many of his paintings have taken upon a decorative formality--elegant, and pleasing in many ways, on the contrary ultimately spiritless. On view in addition to the paintings was a series of 13 works upon paper, the "Lily Requiem Cycle" which chronicles the short life of a single lily main stock the theme of death curiously restoreed in Miami Vice pink and black. An installation titled Lilac expanse completely covered the walls of a small side gallery, surrounding the viewer with four monumental canvases intended to create an ambiance rather like that of a Japanese garden--and indeed they did. The humor of these paintings is quiet and contemplative. There is les contrast than in Kushner's other pieces, and his palette is subdued: lilacs, virids blues and golds that coexist comfortably. The vertical strips of variegated color that form the backdrop for the protection of flowers resemble Japanese schedules adding to the feeling of tranquility. on the other hand while the two are not always mutually exclusive, Kushner pays for this quietude with a lapse in verve

All is not not to be found however. In Orchid Sunset, a large square painting from 1998 Kushner regains his joie de vivre. Here the background, an rugged grid executed in subtle washes, be incandescents with the various hues of twilight. Metallic, confetti-like squares rise to the top like champagne blobs matching the springlike flowering of tiny fulvid oncidium orchids. There is a faculty of perception of movement, of upward increase of faith in the processe of renewal, and nature becomes more than make subordinate matter, a source of joy

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