The vertical �posts� of encaustic on wood look like a cross between flesh and marble; flesh for the color and surface and marble for that and the forms. Their sensuality is so complete that it becomes a temptation to run your hand across them.  Backing away for the bigger picture, the piece establishes a subtle double broken line. This occurs as a result of the objects lined up along the wall in a row but also for the pattern established by the small black and white bands around each vertical form.

This group show of classic abstraction is interesting for a number of reasons.  Begin with the artists included: Seymour Boardman, Ernest Briggs, Ilya Bolotowsky, Lawrence Calcagno, Nassos Daphnis, Perle Fine, Joseph Fiore, Buffie Johnson, Al Kotin, Ibram Lassaw, Louis Nevelson, William Scharf and Yvonne Thomas.  How many

Nassos Daphnis and Ilya Bolotowsky
at Anita Shapolsky Gallery

of these names stand out as New York School household names? Not many, yet their art is no less engaging for lack of wide recognition and indeed often stands up quite well to their better known contemporaries. A case in point is Ernest Briggs who studied with Cliffort Still in California and to whom some of Briggs work has been fairly compared. But when you get a good look at the

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Ginny Fox (detail) at Soho 20 Gallery

array of Brigg�s painting (and you will on these pages when he is the profiled artist for our December issue), his work represents a far greater range, takes more chances and is ultimately more interesting then Still�s.

Yvonne Thomas and Joseph Fiore
at Anita Shapolsky Gallery

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