Nicholas Krushenick

Born in New York City in 1929, Krushenick served in World War II, then studied art upon his return to home life. He attended the Art Students League of New York (1948–1950) and the Hans Hofmann School Of Art (1950-1951). He and brother John Krushenick opened an artists' cooperative called the Brata Gallery in the late fifties.

Krushenick began showing his work publicly in New York in 1957, at the age of 28. By 1962, his work was shown at upscale galleries and, by the year 2000, was part of major permanent collections throughout New York and the United States .

A formality and brilliance of color reminiscent of medieval Europe' banners is apparent in Krushenick's art Yet there is, at the same time and in spite of the bright energy, a depiction of a painful tension krushenick began in a figurative style after his studies at the Art Student's League and the Hans Hofmann School of Art, then moved from one to another of several varieties of Abstract Expressionism. It was in the 1960's that the soft brushwork he had favored was abandoned for hard-edge black stripes that cut through jewel-like colors; beneath the shimmer of the coloring is a solidity of effect that relates his color areas to the intervening bars. Krushenick's art is included in nearly every major avant-garde exhibition.

In 1969, Krushenick gave up his soft brush abstract expressionist technique for bolder colours and lines similar to illustration, yet maintaining use of abstract figurative forms. This style marked him as one of the original practitioners of pop art.

In his later years, Krushenick taught at the University of Maryland, College Park from 1977 to 1991. He died in New York on February 5, 1999, at age 69.

Timeline:

1929 Born New York, New York, United States of America
1946-48Serves in US Army
1948-50Attends Art Student’s League, New York as part of GI Bill
1950-51Attends Hans Hoffman School, New York
1951-57 Holds a variety of jobs in New York: constructs stage sets, creates department store window displays, works as framer at Museum of Modern Art, manages antique shop
1958-62Co-founder of Brata Gallery, New York
1962 Solo exhibition, Graham Gallery, New York
1964 Included in exhibition, Post-Painterly Abstraction, organized by Clement Greenberg Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
1965 Awarded fellowship at Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles
Creates edition of Fairfax and mustard, Gemini Ltd, Los Angeles
1966 Included in exhibition, Systemic Painting, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; New Forms and Shapes of Colour, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
1968 Solo exhibition, Nicholas Krushenick, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; designs sets and costumes for Tyrone Guthrie Theater production of Franz Josef Haydn’s comic opera, Man in the Moon, Minneapolis
1969 Artist-in-residence with solo exhibition at Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
1970 Solo exhibition, University of South Florida, Tampa
1973 Solo exhibition, University of Alabama, Birmingham
1974 Solo exhibition, Portland Center for the Visual Arts, Oregon
1975 Solo exhibition, California State College, San Bernadino
1976 Solo exhibition, State University of New York, Alfred
1977 Solo exhibition, Newport Art Association, Rhode Island
1977-91 Teaches, at University of Maryland, College Park
1979 Solo exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Miami, Florida
1981 Solo exhibition, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut
1988 Solo exhibition, Stamford Museum, Connecticut
1988 Solo exhibition, University of West Florida, Pensacola
1998 Nicholas Krushenick died in New York, New York, United States of America.