Art In Review |
Elena Sisto's lush paintings look like
chunks of old walls on which graffiti figures have been repeatedly
drawn and erased until only cryptic, half-seen fragments remain. Ms.
Sisto continues to rely on cartoon heroines to play out her allusive
dramas, but of a distinctly different sort than before. Where once
Nancy, the no-nonsense protagonist of Ernie Bushmiller's classic comic
strip, took the leading role in these narratives, Ms. Sisto now enlists
a variety of female (and a few male) characters, notably in men's magazines
of the 1950's. Richard Prince has used similar cartoon bimbos in his
paintings, but for very different ends. Where his deadpan images maintain
an ironic distance from their sources in popular culture, Ms. Sisto
focuses on the decidedly mixed messages of sexual power and exploitation
these cartoon characters offer women. These are beautifully painted
pieces, mostly in pastel pinks and blues, and now made with tempera
rather than oils. The scarred surfaces and expressive paint-handling
lend mythic overtones to the scenes. The fat snakelike form that winds
its way through"Eve"
(1991) evokes the primal skirmish between the sexes in the Garden of
Eden. Other works here suggest cave paintings, with the busty heroines
as improbable fertility goddesses. |