Works by 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.