From Fire-Flash-Fire-Fade, 1971

This edition from Nicholas Krushenick’s portfolio Fire-Flash-Fire-Fade (1971) exemplifies his distinctive fusion of Pop Art and abstraction. The composition is dominated by vivid red and yellow fields, interrupted by jagged black and white forms that converge in a dramatic, almost explosive pattern. The sharp, irregular shapes create a powerful sense of movement and tension, while the intense contrasts give the image the immediate visual impact of a graphic sign or comic-book explosion.

The work demonstrates Krushenick’s characteristic transformation of the visual language of popular culture into an abstract vocabulary. Rather than depicting a recognisable subject, he uses colour, contour and repetition to create a dynamic image that seems to oscillate between explosion and fragmentation. The tension between the bold geometric structure and the expressive energy of the forms is characteristic of Krushenick’s work of the early 1970s.