Nicholas Krushenick
In Nicholas Krushenick's Electric Soup (1969), cartoon-like explosions bordered in yellow bands interlock in the center of a red field, revealing a second visual layer of blue and orange horizontal stripes. Krushenick outlines each field of color in black, using a Liquitex acrylic he adopted a decade earlier once it became commercially available. Unlike the oil paints he used during the height of Abstract Expressionism, the synthetic paint allowed Krushenick to systemically develop a unique form of flattened abstraction that defied the improvisational gesture heralded at the time. His references suggest a formality but with a sense of humor, incorporating stripes, pinwheels and zigzags in an energized combination of Pop, Minimalism and Color Field painting.