New Tang exhibition presents work of Nicholas Krushenick

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery will present a survey of the work of genre-defying artist Nicholas Krushenick, Feb. 7– Aug 16. Nicholas Krushenick: Electric Soup features more than 20 of the artist’s eye-popping paintings, along with collages, drawings, and prints from the 1950s through the 1990s, an under-appreciated body of work that has had a profound influence on generations of artists working in a variety of styles and media.

Electric Soup presents Krushenick’s dynamic paintings, which juxtapose bold forms with hard-edged abstraction, revealing works that exist independent of yet connected to Op art, Pop, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, and Color Field painting. The exhibition includes well-known works created in New York in the 1960s and 1970s as Krushenick rose to prominence, as well as works created in Baltimore during the 1980s and 1990s, when art market tastes shifted away from Krushenick’s unclassifiable style.

The survey also includes rarely seen drawings and prints influenced by abstract expressionist Hans Hoffman’s theory of “push-pull,” in which bright contrasting colors activate the space—a practice Krushenick continued to use throughout his career.

Krushenick’s boldly independent vocabulary and style helped him become a prominent figure on the New York art scene in the 1960s. His vibrant paintings hinge on a tension between figure and ground; flatness and spatiality; edge and interior; geometry and disorder; with influences as varied as Henri Matisse, Edward Hicks, and Henri Rousseau.

While Krushenick’s graphic forms and bright colors are akin to Pop art, he remained interested in abstraction, distancing his work from the representational forms of Pop art. While not as widely recognized as other artists of the period, Krushenick influenced many contemporary artists including Kathy Butterly, Peter Halley, Mary Heilmann, and Thomas Nozkowski.

“As a museum dedicated to interdisciplinary teaching and learning, it’s important to us that our exhibitions are valuable tools to inform study across a range of disciplines, and provide engaging experiences for all our visitors,” said Ian Berry, Dayton Director at the Tang. “We are thrilled to bring together this impressive group of Nicholas Krushenick’s bold and inspiring paintings, and to introduce a new audience to his significant body of work.”

An extensive catalogue will accompany the exhibition, chronicling the history of Krushenick’s work through images, scholarly essays, and excerpts from interviews with the artist.

The exhibition includes loans from the Museum of Modern Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Walker Art Center, Johnson Museum at Cornell University, and several private collections along with key works from the artist’s estate. Many of the works have not been seen publicly in decades and have never before been brought together in the same exhibition.

For more information visit the Tang Museum website here.

The following events related to the Krushenick show are free and open to the public.

Saturday, Feb. 7
Lecture by Stephen Westfall and Tang spring opening
Artist and critic Stephen Westfall will speak on the artwork and career of Nicholas Krushenick. The talk will be followed by the spring opening in celebration of the Tang’s the latest exhibitions.
5–6:30 p.m., 6:30–8 p.m.

Wednesday, March 25
Dunkerley Dialogue and Electric Soup party
Join guest painters and Assistant Professor of Art Fabian Lopez in a discussion on painting, abstraction, and the legacy of Nicholas Krushenick. Followed by an art-making party with music and food
6:30–10 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 20
Curator’s tour of Nicholas Krushenick: Electric Soup
with Tang Director Ian Berry
Noon