Richard Anuszkiewicz

Q: When did Richard Anuszkiewicz die?

Richard Anuszkiewicz died on May 19, 2020.

Q: How old was Richard Anuszkiewicz when they died?

Richard Anuszkiewicz was 89 years old at the time of death.

Richard Joseph Anuszkiewicz (/ˌɑːnəsˈkeɪvɪtʃ/; May 23, 1930 – May 19, 2020) was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor. The son of Polish immigrants, he developed a geometric style.

Life and work

Anuszkiewicz was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, the son of Victoria (Jankowski) and Adam Anuszkiewicz, who worked in a paper mill. His parents were Polish immigrants. He first studied art under Joseph Plavcan while still in high school, later describing him as his most significant influence. Anuszkiewicz trained at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, Ohio (1948–1953), and then with Josef Albers at the Yale University School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut (1953–1955), where he earned his Masters of Fine Arts. While at Yale, Anuszkiewicz was roommates with a fellow abstract painter of Polish descent and a student of Albers, Julian Stanczak.

He was one of the leading figures in the Op Art movement during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Victor Vasarely in France and Bridget Riley in England were his primary international counterparts. In 1964, Life magazine called him "one of the new wizards of Op". While reflecting on a New York City gallery show of Anuszkiewicz's from 2000, New York Times art critic Holland Cotter described Anuszkiewicz's paintings: "The drama — and that feels like the right word — is in the subtle chemistry of complementary colors, which makes the geometry glow as if light were leaking out from behind it." Anuszkiewicz exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Florence Biennale and Documenta, and his works are in permanent collections internationally. He was elected into the National Academy of Design in 1992 as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1994.

Style

Anuszkiewicz was concerned with the optical changes that occur when different high-intensity colors are applied to the same geometric configurations. Most of his work comprises visual investigations of formal structural and color effects, many of them nested square forms similar to the work of his mentor Josef Albers. In his series, "Homage to the Square", Albers experimented with juxtapositions of color, and Anuszkiewicz developed these concepts further. Anuszkiewicz continued to produce works in the Op Art style over the subsequent decades of his career.

In 1963, Anuszkiewicz summarized his approach to painting as: "My work is of an experimental nature and has centered on an investigation into the effects of complementary colors of full intensity when juxtaposed and the optical changes that occur as a result, and a study of the dynamic effect of the whole under changing conditions of light, and the effect of light on color."

Selected collections holding works

Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Art Institute of Chicago
Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas
Boca Raton Museum of Art
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art
Cleveland Museum of Art
Columbus Museum of Art
Currier Museum of Art
Denver Art Museum
Erie Art Museum
Detroit Institute of Arts
Flint Institute of Arts
Fogg Museum, Harvard University
The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection
Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art
Honolulu Museum of Art
Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
Whitney Museum of Art, New York
Richard M. Ross Art Museum, Ohio

Grants and awards

1953: Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship
1963: Charles of the Ritz Oil Painting Award
1964: The Silvermine Guild Award for Oil Painting
1977: Cleveland Arts Prize
1980: Hassam Fund Purchase Award
1988: Hassam Fund Purchase Award
1994: New York State Art Teachers' Association Award
1995: Emil and Dines Carlson Award
1996: New Jersey Pride Award
1997: Richard Florsheim Fund Grant
2000: Lee Krasner Award
2005: Lorenzo dei Medici Career Award, awarded at the Florence Biennale

Exhibitions

Anuskiewicz exhibited in many public collections around the world, including such New York galleries as Sidney Janis, The Contemporaries, and the Andrew Crispo Gallery.