Skip to main content
This untitled composition is strongly suggestive of a landscape with an implicit ground plane running the width of the composition. There is a centrally placed vertical form that rises the full extent of the composition and is suggestive of a tall, attenuated tree. It overlaps the black outline that establishes an open rectangle unbounded at the bottom. This shape is suggestive of a door and it projects into a rounded shape with a jagged sawtooth outline, resembling a setting or rising sun, or a shrub. The flat color areas and thick black outline flatten the image despite the aforementioned illusionistic references. Krushenick’s color palette rejects any naturalistic representation of nature; the ground plane and vertical form are orange-red and the jagged-edged dome shape is a fluorescent yellow-green against a metallic silver background.
Art critic John Yau commented that “Krushenick defies painting’s single most important issue as a figure-ground problem whose implications are finally metaphysical.” Yau further summed up Krushenick’s artistic achievement: “From the outset, he was adamantly anti-formalist without being nostalgic or reactionary. He believed it was the artist’s right and responsibility to be independent, and he determinedly explored and defined a territory that was all his own.” [2]
Notes:
[1] Krushenick, 1967 statement included in artist’s biographical information sent to Reynolda House Museum of American Art by Julia Krushenick on March 25, 2004.
[2] John Yau, “Nicholas Krushenick,” The Brooklyn Rail: Critical Perspectives on Arts, Politics, and Culture (June 2007), 7. http://www.brooklynrail.org/2007/06/artseen/nicholas-krushenick
ProvenanceTo 2002
Robert C. Hobbs and Jean Crutchfield, Richmond, VA [1]
From 2002
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Robert C. Hobbs and Jean Crutchfield on December 27, 2002. [2]
Notes:
[1] Letter, December 9, 2001, object file.
[2] Letter, December 27, 2002, object file.
Exhibition History2006-2007
Modern Fun! Prints from the 70’s and ‘80s
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (10/3/2006-1/28/2007)
2008
New World Views: Gifts from Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (5/20/2008-8/31/2008)
Published References
DepartmentAmerican Art
Untitled
Artist
Nicholas Krushenick
(1929 - 1999)
Date1980
Mediumsilkscreen on rag paper
DimensionsFrame: 39 5/16 x 48 3/16 x 2 3/4 in. (99.9 x 122.4 x 7 cm)
Image: 30 3/4 x 39 1/2 in. (78.1 x 100.3 cm)
Image (visible, to mat): 29 7/8 x 38 3/4 in. (75.9 x 98.4 cm)
SignedKrushenick 1980
Credit LineGift of Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs
Copyright© The Estate of Nicholas Krushenick/ Gary Snyder Gallery
Object number2002.6.6
DescriptionNicholas Krushenick, a lifelong New Yorker, once explained how his creative process began as a reaction to the city: “I walk around the city an awful lot. I just walk around the city and get visually stimulated over the way a fire escape is hanging or a neon light that’s blinking someplace. And not really, most of the time it’s just a slight something or something that will hit me and it will sort of record in my brain. I may never use it but it just sits there, and somehow I suspect that when I sketch, some of these things come back to me in different ways.” [1]This untitled composition is strongly suggestive of a landscape with an implicit ground plane running the width of the composition. There is a centrally placed vertical form that rises the full extent of the composition and is suggestive of a tall, attenuated tree. It overlaps the black outline that establishes an open rectangle unbounded at the bottom. This shape is suggestive of a door and it projects into a rounded shape with a jagged sawtooth outline, resembling a setting or rising sun, or a shrub. The flat color areas and thick black outline flatten the image despite the aforementioned illusionistic references. Krushenick’s color palette rejects any naturalistic representation of nature; the ground plane and vertical form are orange-red and the jagged-edged dome shape is a fluorescent yellow-green against a metallic silver background.
Art critic John Yau commented that “Krushenick defies painting’s single most important issue as a figure-ground problem whose implications are finally metaphysical.” Yau further summed up Krushenick’s artistic achievement: “From the outset, he was adamantly anti-formalist without being nostalgic or reactionary. He believed it was the artist’s right and responsibility to be independent, and he determinedly explored and defined a territory that was all his own.” [2]
Notes:
[1] Krushenick, 1967 statement included in artist’s biographical information sent to Reynolda House Museum of American Art by Julia Krushenick on March 25, 2004.
[2] John Yau, “Nicholas Krushenick,” The Brooklyn Rail: Critical Perspectives on Arts, Politics, and Culture (June 2007), 7. http://www.brooklynrail.org/2007/06/artseen/nicholas-krushenick
ProvenanceTo 2002
Robert C. Hobbs and Jean Crutchfield, Richmond, VA [1]
From 2002
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Robert C. Hobbs and Jean Crutchfield on December 27, 2002. [2]
Notes:
[1] Letter, December 9, 2001, object file.
[2] Letter, December 27, 2002, object file.
Exhibition History2006-2007
Modern Fun! Prints from the 70’s and ‘80s
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (10/3/2006-1/28/2007)
2008
New World Views: Gifts from Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (5/20/2008-8/31/2008)
Published References
Status
Not on view