Robert Kushner Portrait Prints

Robert Ellis Kushner (American, b.1949). 44/84 Lithograph on paper titled " Honor thy Mother and Father"; Depicting a husband and wife (I have seen this print described as a screenprint and as a lithograph) Hand signed in pencil and dated alongside an embossed pictorial blindstamp of a closed hand with one raised index finger. Solo Press. From The Ten Commandments Kenny Scharf; Joseph Nechvatal; Gretchen Bender; April Gornik; Robert Kushner; Nancy Spero; Vito Acconci; Jane Dickson; Judy Rifka; Richard Bosman and Lisa Liebmann. Robert Kushner, born in 1949, in California, lives in New York, and is a painter and sculptor. He gained attention in the early seventies as a performance artist, using food, fabric and nudity. Kushner was associated with the Pattern and Decoration movement and used fabric collage in large-scale, bold paintings of the figure. Since 1987 he has used flowers as the subject of his paintings, more recently adding a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables to his repertoire. Kushner's use of rich color harmonies and bold, fluid drawing, mark his belief in the importance of beauty in our lives. Kushner draws from a unique range of influences, including Islamic and European textiles, Henri Matisse, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Pierre Bonnard, Tawaraya Sotatsu, Ito Jakuchu, Qi Baishi, and Wu Changshuo. Kushner’s work combines organic representational elements with abstracted geometric forms in a way that is both decorative and modernist. Kushner has collaborated with Master printer Bud Shark since 1982 on various monotypes and lithographs. These exuberant, sensuous prints often include collage elements, including glitter, chine-collé, metal leaf and hand coloring. Kushner's work has been exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, and Japan and has been included in the Whitney Biennial three times and twice at the Venice Biennale in Italy. He was the subject of solo exhibitions at both the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Brooklyn Museum. A mid-career retrospective of his work was organized by the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art. He was one of the original painters of the Pattern and Decoration movements of the 1970s. (along with Cynthia Carlson, Brad Davis, Mary Grigoriadis, Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, Kim MacConnel, Sonya Rapoport, Miriam Schapiro and Valerie Jaudon) The group began exhibiting together in 1976 in "Ten Approaches to the Decorative" at the Alessandra Gallery in New York, followed by "Pattern Painting" in 1977 at PS1 in Long Island City, Queens. Subsequently, over fifty group exhibitions featuring the founding artists were held in museums and galleries in Europe and the U.S. including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark, the Neue Galerie, in Aachen, Germany, the Pori Art Museum, the Mayor Gallery in London, Modern Art Oxford, and the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York.Robert Kushner's prints include a lithograph with gold leaf titled White Lilac and a series of monotypes that include Blue Bells II, Geranium IV, and Oregon Grape III. Robert Kushner lives in New York and has completed several major public commissions. He has exhibited his work widely and is represented in the collections of The Brooklyn Museum, Los Angeles County Museum, The Metropolitan Museum, NY, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Tate Gallery, London, The Whitney Museum, NY and others. In 1997 Hudson Hills Press published the monograph, Robert Kushner: Gardens of Earthly Delight by Alexandra Anderson-Spivey. The New Jersey Center for Visual Arts mounted the survey exhibition Robert Kushner: 25 Years of Making Art in 1998. Kushner's work is represented in numerous important public collections: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Art Collection of the United States Embassy, Panama Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Galleria degli Ufizzi, Florence, Italy Gröninger Museum, Gröningen, the Netherlands Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, CA Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany Museum Ludwig, St. Petersburg, Russia Museum Moderner Kunst - Palais Lichtenstein, Vienna, Austria The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Neue-Galerie-Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen, Germany Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Rockefeller Center, New York, NY San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA The Tate Gallery, London, England Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Select Exhibitions: Robert Kushner: 30 Literary Nudes, Luis De Jesus, Santa Monica, CA Robert Kushner: The Language of Flowers, DC Moore...

Robert Kushner Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother (The Fifth Commandment), 1987 6 Color Lithograph on Dieu Donne handmade paper 24 × 18 inches Pencil signed and numbered 6/84 in graphite on the front Unframed with deckled edges This five color lithograph on Dieu Donne hand made paper with deckled edges is pencil signed, dated and numbered from the limited edition of 84. This 1980s Robert Kushner print was created as part of the 1987 portfolio "The Ten Commandments", in which ten top Jewish American artists were each invited to choose an Old Testament commandment to interpret in contemporary lithographic form. The "Chosen" artists were, in order of Commandment: Kenny Scharf, Joseph Nechvatal, Gretchen Bender, April Gornik, Robert Kushner, Nancy Spero, Vito Acconci, Jane Dickson, Judy Rifka and Richard Bosman. This is the first time the print will have been removed from the original portfolio case. (shown). Lisa Liebmann, who wrote the introduction to the collection, observed: "...The image has, for most of us, replaced the word..." With respect to the present work, she writes, "There is a sweet smell of nostalgia to Robert Kushner's view of the FIFTH COMMANDMENT, to honor one's parents. Kushner's subtly ornate use of colors suffuses his subject with a filagreed texture of warmth. In this gentle icon, the traditional duo - all those Ozzies and Harriets in our hearts and on the airwaves -are frames as if by a bubble bath of affection." ROBERT KUSHNER BIOGRAPHY 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, Ito Jakuchu, Qi Baishi, and Wu...

Robert Kushner is an American contemporary painter who is known especially for his involvement in Pattern and Decoration and has been called "a founder" of that artistic movement. In addition to painting, Kushner creates installations in a variety of mediums, from large-scale public mosaics to delicate paintings on antique book pages. Kushner draws from a unique range of influences, including Islamic and European textiles, Henri Matisse, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Pierre Bonnard, Tawaraya Sotatsu, Ito Jakuchu, Qi Baishi...