Robert Kushner, Inside/Outside

Since participating in the early years of the Pattern and Decoration Movement in the 1970s, Robert Kushner has continued to address controversial issues involving decoration. Kushner draws from a unique range of influences, including Islamic and European textiles, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Pierre Bonnard, Tawaraya Sotatsu, and Wu Changshuo. Kushner’s work combines organic representational elements with abstracted geometric forms in a way that is decorative and modernist. Kushner’s newest work presents some striking departures and some reiterations of themes that have been integral to his work for decades. The most visible introduction is a bold use of geometricized patterns that break through his new floral compositions, echoing, amplifying and sometimes even undermining the rhythms of the more naturally drawn floral elements. His exotic and unique color sense has become bolder within his new work, and the emotional range varies from contemplative to exuberant and celebratory.