Robert Kushner is among a group of artists who deliberately set out to restore pleasure and solace to the realm of contemporary art. Kushner, was one of the key contributors to a movement known Pattern and Decoration (P&D) in the 1970s, brought about by artists who took inspiration from traditional crafts and the importance of sensual beauty.
As a child growing up in Pasadena, Kushner frequented the nearby Huntington Library, spending hours looking at old books and prints, and wandering its gardens. Flowers, ornament, and the rich patterns of textiles figure prominently in his work as an artist. At Tamarind, Kushner created a special edition for the Collectors Club on a black Arches paper with a silver aluminum leaf, and a variation of that image on a creamy paper with gold aluminum leaf and other metallic dustings. Poppy (State I) and Poppy (State II) utilize the same matrixes with dramatically different results.
Robert Kushner’s work has been exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, and Japan since 1975. His works are in museum collections around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Whitney Museum of American Art; The National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Tate Gallery, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Denver Art Museum; Galleria degli Ufizzi, Florence; J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles; Museum Ludwig, St. Petersburg; and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Kushner has also creates large-scale mosaic murals for public and private spaces. His commissions include mosaic murals at the 77th Street & Lexington Avenue subway station in New York City, Gramercy Tavern and Maialino restaurants in New York City, Union Square in Tokyo, The Ritz Carlton Highlands in Lake Tahoe, the Federal Reserve System in Washington, DC., and an eighty-foot-long marble mosaic at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina.
