Rivals

The „Pattern and Decoration“ movement was formed in the 1970ies in the United States. It antagonized the hegemony of Western male-dominated aesthetics, and tried to integrate certain forms of applied art, for example Asian and African. Artworks reflected ethnic diversity in the U.S., and discussed historically uncared-for techniques usually associated with handicraft. The resulting artworks drew freely on a whole range of ethnographic topics. Robert Kushner’s “Rivals” was achieved in 1978. The gigantic canvas is filled with two faces looking away from each other. Despite their individual traits, the faces resemble each other, chiefly due to their shared color scheme: The yellow outer parts, their flesh-tinted mouths, and the inner purple parts around the eyes are among the many symmetrical elements in the painting. Who are these “Rivals” who are yet so alike? Neither their gender nor the color of their skin is determined, and although they appear as seperate from one another, they almost seem to stem from one single body in their very middle. And although they are fiercely facing away from each other, they still seem, in some strange way, to be grown together. All further interpretation is speculation, though. Robert Kushner comments on his way of painting: “Decoration, an abjectly pejorative dismissal for many, is a very big, somewhat defiant declaration for me. … The eye can wander, the mind thinks unencumbered through visual realms that are expansively and emotionally rich. Decoration has always had its own agenda, the sincere and unabashed offering of pleasure and solace.”