Born in 1949 , California : Lives in New York Robert Kushner is a painter and a 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 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. 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.
