Richard Joseph Anuszkiewicz (; 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."

Selected collections holding works

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  • 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
  • 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,