Nicholas Krushenick

Nicholas Krushenick (1929-1999) was an American abstract painter, collagist and printmaker who developed his signature “pop abstract” style in the early 1960s. The loose geometries and web-like forms of his early paintings demonstrate his deliberate caricature of Abstract Expressionist “drips” or “skeins” into what more closely resemble details from cartoons.

Untitled

Krushenick’s Graphicstudio lithographs are indicative of the gradual shift that occurred in the artist’s work beginning in the late 1960s. Dynamic surface patterns and a sense of movement dominate his images. Krushenick’s selective palette and his use of flat areas of clear, vibrant color, outlined in black recall the techniques used in advertising and comic books.

Krushenick’s imagery is suggestive but never actually representational as he stated “I have a series of forms and shapes that I am in love with. When I want sort of to refine them, I make a lot of drawings, playing around to see if a new one is going to work, do what I want it to do...They have to offer a certain kind of dynamic element. They can’t be too literal as a form. They have to have a certain kind of mystery, so you can’t identify them, but they suggest many forms.”

Krushenick’s work is featured in the collections of over sixty major museums, including: the Albright-Knox Art Gallery; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Dallas Museum of Fine Art; the Empire State Art Collection; the Grey Art Gallery, New York University; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; the Stedelijk Museum; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

 

Further Resources

Artist's Site: nicholaskrushenick.com

Printmaking + Sculpture Terms

Printmaking Glossary

Sculpture Glossary

Sales

For sales, or more information about an edition, please contact Graphicstudio at (813) 974-3503 or gsoffice@usf.edu.

Copyright + Reproduction

Images of the artwork are jointly owned by the artist and Graphicstudio. Reproduction of any kind including electronic media must be expressly approved by Graphicstudio.