LOS ANGELES, CA.- An exhibition of new oil paintings by Robert Kushner, the celebrated American painter and co-founder of the Pattern & Decoration movement, opened on April 19 at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles. “Robert Kushner: Dahlias—Fields of Steadfastness,” the artist’s second exhibition with the gallery, presents a new series of paintings that pays tribute to one of his favorite flowers, the dahlia—symbol of beauty, eternal love, resilience and inner strength. The exhibition marks a unique moment in his long and distinguished career. Though based in New York, Kushner was born in 1949 in Pasadena, CA, and raised in the nearby semi-rural enclave of Arcadia where things were decidedly different and life was simpler.


Robert Kushner, Dinner Plate Dahlia—Red, 2025. Oil, acrylic, conte crayon, and gold leaf on canvas, 72 x 54 in (182.9 x 137.2 cm).

The paintings in Dahlias: Fields of Steadfastness reflect his meditation on this simplicity with their quick painterly gestures and bright, modern palette—a glorious showstopper of colors and convoluted forms. He notes: “This past year I had the whole fall free to paint dahlias as they slowly came into bloom. Starting with six smaller paintings and then expanding their already expansive personalities to four larger paintings. I was in heaven, haunting the flower sellers at our nearby farmers market, looking for new colors and forms and then trying to capture their individual personalities on the canvas. Afterwards I added a stripe of gold, the suggestion of a striped window curtain, and blocks of color against which the dahlia flowers could glow and scintillate. …Flowers are a refuge,’ he says. ‘For me, drawing them, capturing their ephemeral beauty is an antidote to the horrors of our external condition. Plant forms and, particularly flowers, offer solace, gentle kindness, beauty, transcendence to the heartaches of our daily lives. If through my work I can remain steadfast, and for a moment take you away to a safe haven, then I have been successful.”


Robert Kushner: Dahlia Fields of Steadfastness, 2025 installation view.

Since participating in the Pattern & Decoration movement in the early 1970s, Robert Kushner has continued to address controversial issues involving decoration. Kushner draws from a unique range of influences, including Islamic and European textiles, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Pierre Bonnard, Tawaraya Sotatsu, Ito Jakuchu, Qi Baishi, and Wu Changshuo. Kushner’s work combines organic representational elements such as flowers and fruit with abstracted geometric forms in a way that is both decorative and modernist. His use of simplified, graphic lines further accentuates his inquiry into the connection between organic and geometric spaces. By integrating stripped and patterned textiles into the layered backgrounds of his still lifes, Kushner achieves complex harmonies of color and form, linking his contemporary practice to his foundational Pattern & Decoration roots.


Robert Kushner, Dinner Plate Dahlia—Pink, 2025. Oil, acrylic, conte crayon and gold leaf on canvas, 72 x 54 in (182.9 x 137.2 cm).

Robert Kushner's work has been exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, and Japan and has been included in the Whitney Biennial three times and twice in La Biennale in Venice, Italy. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. His works are included in many prominent collections including The Museum of Modern Art, NY; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; The National Gallery of Art and The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Tate Gallery, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; The Denver Art Museum; Galleria degli Ufizzi, Florence; J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles; and Museum Ludwig, St. Petersburg, among others.


Robert Kushner: Dahlia Fields of Steadfastness, 2025 installation view.

Robert Kushner: Dahlias—Fields of Steadfastness is on view at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles through May 31, 2025. For further information, call 213-395-0762 or email gallery@luisdejesus.com.