NYAB Event - Nicholas Krushenick "A Survey"

Nicholas Krushenick "A Survey"

Garth Greenan Gallery

This event has ended.

Gary Snyder Gallery presents its inaugural exhibition, Nicholas Krushenick: A Survey, an exhibition of paintings, collages, and drawings at its new location at 529 West 20th Street. Opening on September 22, 2011, the exhibition is the most comprehensive presentation of Krushenick’s work in almost twenty years. Fifteen of the artist’s brilliantly colored, abstract paintings will be on view, as well as a selection of collages and preparatory drawings, many of which have never before been exhibited. A 140-page monograph—Krushenick’s first since 1972—will accompany the exhibition, with contributions from John Yau, Tom Burckhardt, Kathy Butterly, Mary Heilmann, Thomas Nozkowski, and David Reed.

The exhibition and its accompanying publication offer a retrospective view of the artist’s work from the 1960s to the 1990s—from the loose geometries and web-like forms of early paintings such as Turn Back Columbus (1963) to the artist’s groundbreaking experiments in “pop abstraction.” Works in the exhibition such as Battery Park (1965), Fire Fade (1971), and Grand Entrance (1987) illustrate the steady development of Krushenick’s unique approach to abstract painting. The high-keyed color, formal rigor, and sheer graphic intensity of his paintings set Krushenick apart from his contemporaries. As a result, decades after its creation, Krushenick’s work still appears remarkably fresh.

“From the outset, he was adamantly anti-formalist without being nostalgic or reactionary,” writes critic John Yau. “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.”

Born in the Bronx, New York in 1929, Nicholas Krushenick studied painting at the Art Students League and the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. After completing his training, Krushenick designed window displays and worked in the Framing Department of the Museum of Modern Art. From 1957 to 1962, the artist, along with his brother John, operated the now legendary Brata Gallery in Manhattan’s East Village. Brata displayed the works of many of the foremost artists of the day, including, among others: Ronald Bladen, Ed Clarke, Al Held, Yayoi Kusama, and George Sugarman.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Krushenick had solo exhibitions at many of the most influential and prestigious galleries, including: Graham Gallery (1958, 1962, 1964, New York), Fischbach Gallery (1965, New York), Galerie Sonnabend (1967, Paris), Galerie Ziegler (1969, Zürich), Galerie Beyeler (1971, Basel), and The Pace Gallery (1967, 1969, 1972, New York). During this period, his work also figured prominently in many landmark museum exhibitions, such as Post Painterly Abstraction (1964, Los Angeles County Museum of Art), Vormen van de Kleur (1964, Stedelijk Museum), Systemic Painting (1965, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), and Documenta IV (1968, Fridericianum), among others. In 1968, the Walker Art Center mounted a retrospective exhibition of Krushenick’s work. His first European retrospective came four years later, in 1972, at the Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hannover, Germany.

Media

• Painting
• Drawing

ADVERTISE ON NYAB