Glittering gardens: in his paintings on antique Japanese screens and sliding doors, veteran Pattern and Decoration artist Robert Kushner brings a high degree of opulence to a melange of Eastern and Western influences

Art in America, June-July, 2005 by Edward M. Gomez

Kushner maintains the same seriousness of purpose that he brought, as a young artist, to researching the history of Islamic decorative motifs and the drawing or weaving methods that were used, centuries ago, to give them tangible form. In the ongoing exercise in East-meets-West esthetics that his recent paintings represent, Kushner has plowed ahead with his experiments on old screens and door panels. Still engrossed in his studies of classic Japanese and Chinese art, he has not yet exhausted his source material, and he avidly continues to acquire byobu and fusuma for future painting projects. He remains intrigued by the hand-touched character of such antique objects and the timeworn spirit they convey. His art ultimately transforms these relics, reviving and redefining them through the expressive power of paint.

(1.) Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes by Kushner are from interviews with the author conducted at the artist's New York studio, spring-autumn 2004.

(2.) She found it "too painful"; Robert Kushner, "Amy Goldin," in Parrot Talk: A Retrospective of Works by Kim MacConnel, Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2003, p. 39.

(3.) Robert Kushner, "Opening Doors," in Robert Kushner: Opening Doors, New York, DC Moore Gallery, 2004, p. 7.

(4.) Ibid.

(5.) The project, which went on permanent view late last year, was commissioned by New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority for its Arts For Transit Program.

"Robert Kushner: Opening Doors" was on view in New York at DC Moore Gallery [Sept. 21-Oct. 23, 2004]. The show will travel to Bellas Artes in Santa Fe [July 1-30].

Edward M. Gomez, a critic and graphic designer based in New York, has written extensively about Japanese modernism, and about design and Outsider art.