Richard Anuszkiewicz

A student of Josef Albers at the Yale School of Art, Richard Anuszkiewicz was part of a new generation of painters – Kenneth Noland, Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, et al – who rejected the heroic gestures of Abstract Expressionism, seeking to explore more formal concepts of visual perception.  These artists were seminal in paving the way for Minimalism and Conceptual Art in that the hand or ‘signature’ of the artist was less important than the resultant works.

While Life magazine in 1964 called him ‘one of the new wizards of Op’, he was never formally associated with the global movement, but shared with its proponents an interest in the formal optical effects of color and geometry.  The New York Times art critic Holland Cotter wrote that ‘The drama is in the subtle chemistry of complementary colors, which makes the geometry glow as if light were leaking out from behind it.’

Anuszkiewicz went on participate in important museum and gallery exhibitions throughout the world.  His work is represented in the collections of significant institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, New York; the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among a host of others.

Exhibitions

2015        Op Infinitum: “The Responsive Eye” Fifty Years After, Part II, American Op Art in the 60’s, David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2010

Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art Since the 1960s, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, USA
Colorscope: Abstract Painting 1960-1979, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, USA

2009

Abstract Ensemble, ACA Galleries, New York, USA
Pop to Present, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford, USA

2008

Richard Anuszkiewicz: The Inward Eye Series, Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, USA (solo)
Oko zwiedzione, Galeria El. Centrum sztuki, Elblag, Poland
Op Art Revisited, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA
The Rational Eye - Geometric, Optical, Kinetic and Programmed Art, International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC), Ljubljana, Slovenia
To Infinity and Beyond: Mathematics in Contemporary Art, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, USA
Sensory Overload: Light, Motion, Sound and the Optical in Art Since 1945 - Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, USA

2007

The Optical Edge, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, USA
After Image: Op Art of the 1960s, Jacobson Howard Gallery, New York, USA
The Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, USA
Op Art, Schirn Kunsthalle,Frankfurt, Germany

2006

Konstruktive Aspekte von Mondrian bis Kelly, Galerie Proarta, Zurich, Switzerland
Arena der Abstraktion, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
Geometric Abstraction and Color Function: Two Generations, D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc., New York, USA

2005

Optical Simulations, American Abstract Artists, Yellow Bird Gallery, Newburgh, USA
Kunst, die man nicht immer sieht, Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany
Totally Geometric: Abstraction from the permanent Collection, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, USA
American Academy Invitational Exhibition of Painting & Sculpture: The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, USA

2005

Florence Biennale, Florence, Italy

2004

A Century of Collecting, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, USA
25 Jahre Sammeln - Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany

2002

Flatline, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Colors on the Edge: Hard and Soft: The Paintings of Richard Anuszkiewicz and Leon Berkowitz, ACA Galleries, New York, USA

2001

Transcultural Visions: Polish American Contemporary Art, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, USA

2000

From Cubism to Minimalism - A selection of Works by World Leading Artists, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran

1998

Richard Anuszkiewicz, Galerie Proarta, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)

1997

Richard Anuszkiewicz: Quadrat Bottrop, Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop, Germany (solo)

1991

Jestesmy: Zacheta, National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland

1990

Five Works, Newark Museum, Newark, USA
Maruzen Company, Limited, Tokyo, Japan

1989

Une histoire de collections : dons 1984-1989 - Musée d´art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
Gallery Civiche D'Arte Moderna, Assessorato Istituzioni Culturali, Ferrara, Italy

1988

Richard Anuszkiewicz, The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, USA (solo)
Galleria Sagittaria, Centro Iniziative Culturali, Pordenone, Italy
Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, USA
Anuszkiewicz, Four Decades, Richard Green Gallery, New York, USA
Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, USA

1986

Venice Biennale, San Marco, Venice, Italy

1983

Twentieth-Century Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Selected Recent Acquisitions, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

1979

Richard Anuszkiewicz, Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown, USA (solo)

1975

Richard Anuszkiewicz: Bilder und Graphik, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany

1972

Richard Anuszkiewicz, De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, USA

1971

Highlights of the 1970-71 Art Season, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, USA
Paintings by Richard Anuszkiewicz & Sculpture by George Segal, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, USA

1968

Documenta 4, Documenta, Kassel, Germany

1967

1967 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
Richard Anuszkiewicz, Hopkins Art Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA (solo)

1965

Colorists, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, USA
Richard Anuszkiewicz, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, USA (solo)
Reponsive Eye, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

1964

American Paintings and Sculpture 67th Annual, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
Painting and Sculpture of a Decade, 1954-64, the Tate Gallery, London, England

1962

Geometric abstraction in America, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA

1960

Richard Anuszkiewicz, Contemporaries Gallery, New York, USA (The First Solo Exhibition)