Robert Kushner
Holly Solomon Gallery
Robert Kushner has turned to hard bronze, seemingly moving far from the soft textiles that aided and abetted the intimate effect of his previous work. Precious transience–—the poignant effect of a fabulous flower in full bloom so characteristic of his fluid, relaxed figures–—seems to have been replaced by eternal durability. Does this signal a hardening of purpose, a didacticism of the decorative, a polemicizing of the charismatic figure? I think not. By creating what he calls “negative cutouts,” and by continuing to use abandoned materials (now “an inventory of cast and wrought iron pieces,