Pumpkin 1998

This painting is by Nicholas Krushenick and has these eye-popping blocks of primary colors, a real signature of his. I’m thinking about him working on this, maybe with some jazz on in the background. What I love about Krushenick is how he really embraces a graphic sensibility, pushing it right up against the more intuitive aspects of painting. Look at how the black lines create this vibrating energy, almost lifting the flat colors off the canvas. The way he uses contrasting hues, like that bright yellow against the white, it just makes everything sing. I wonder, was he thinking about traffic signs? Pop art? Hard-edge abstraction? Or maybe all of the above? I guess, like with any good painting, it's less about finding one right answer and more about letting your mind wander through the possibilities. It reminds you of someone like Lichtenstein but it's like he wants to go harder and be even more bold with colour and form. Artists are always in conversation with each other, riffing and building on each other's ideas, and that's what keeps the whole thing moving.