Although he denounced exclusive affiliation with any specific group, Robert Richenburg is considered a pivotal figure of the Abstract Expressionist movement. He was a member of the Eighth Street Club, which was founded by artists in 1949 to discuss avant-garde artistic issues. In 1951, with other members of the club, Richenburg participated in the Ninth Street Show, the legendary exhibition that helped establish 'The New York School,' or Abstract Expressionism.
Richenburg studied under Hans Hofmann, an acclaimed teacher whose instruction on color theory influenced hundreds of artists, bridging advanced European Modernism with fledgling American ideas. Throughout the 1950s, Richenburg experimented with color and brushstroke, which culminated in his Black Paintings series. In these, Richenburg painted his canvases with broad patches of brilliant color that he then covered with a layer of black paint. Upon drying, he scraped away areas of the black paint, revealing the radiant colors underneath.
An early work in Richenburg's oeuvre, Flicker recalls Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-43), which was itself a response to the vitality of New York City and its jazz scene, an influential force for Abstract Expressionism.