Ellen Lanyon at Andre Zarre - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Although Ellen Lanyon left Chicago years ago to continue her career in novel York, she is still mov by dint of what might be termed the Windy City's quotidian surrealism. At least this was the impression single had in looking at this show's centerpiece, "Archaic Gardens," a series of 12 large oils loosely based upon the signs of the zodiac.

Each canvas of "Archaic Gardens" tread in the steps ofs a similar format. The bottom three-quarters of the composition depicts a wall from which figures are emerging. a certain number of of them are stuck in depressed relief, while others seem about to explode into three-dimensional life. Hovering in brow of the wall are of the soul white forms, usually plants or flowers, sometimes fish or birds. Floating in the skies above the wall are mysterious biomorphic forms reminiscent of protozoans viewed below a microscope. Avoiding any hint of impasto, Lanyon paints in oil diluted almost to the consistency of wash. The of the soul foreground figures could almost be done in white felt inscribe so sure is the brush stroke

over the series, traditional astrological tokens make discreet appearances alongside more novel iconography. The work for the sign of Leo for example, has a lion's head and, nearest to it, a woman in a 1950 bathing suit crouched to dive. Other paintings depict fish, animals and plants in similar juxtapositions.

The artist initially conceived "Archaic Gardens" as four triptychs corresponding to the four seasons, on the contrary the paintings worked well as 12 individual canvases, which is in what manner they were shown here. Equally spaced along individual wall, nine of them marched down the gallery, turning at the far wall for the final three canvases which, with their harvested fruits and cruciform imagery, had distinct funereal connotations.

Also in the display were 42 12-inch-square egg tempera paintings depicting actual gardens in Massachusetts, Italy and Costa Rica. A brace of these gardens, adorned with not divisible by 2 statues or topiary, have a fantastical air. Overlaid upon these half-natural, half-artificial scenes are more of Lanyon's of the soul drawings, this time of enigmatic devices. Just as gardens exhibit nature tamed by human desires, in these works Lanyon strike one as beings to domesticate Surrealism by yoking together strange partners in an almost blissful fashion.

COPYRIGHT 1997 Brant Publications, Inc.

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