LARRY POONS
Danese

The oeuvre of Larry Poons represents a case of painterly bipolarity. It is hard to think of an artist who veers toward such extremes of serenity and chaos, prettiness and vulgarity. As if to dramatize the split, his early work was characterized by flatness and finesse while subsequent developments included such thickness and alien textures that his garish canvases achieved extraterrestrial weirdness. One possible comparison would be with his fellow secondgeneration Abstract Expressionist Jules Olitski, who also oscillated between “ineluctable flatness” — to use the phrase of the two artists’ critic-champion, Clement Greenberg — and loony impasto.

In his new body of work, Mr. Poons seems to enjoy some measure of equilibrium. There are thickly churned swirls of paint, but there is also a new-found lyricism that recalls the seductive charm of his early flat abstraction. The title of one of the works, “Could You Love Me One More Time” (2005), almost seems an appeal to early formalist enthusiasts to forgive the romantic excesses of the intervening years.

The palette and brush stroke are consistent through this exhibition of generally large, busy canvases. There is an underlying range of organic hues — browns and greens — accentuated by generous dollops of contrastive pink and blue. These colors inevitably bring the late landscapes of Pierre Bonnard to mind, though the artist whose color range they more closely resemble is fellow American Louis Finkelstein. Although the works are completely abstract, there is a sense of narrative as the eye reads the canvas as if it were a calligraphy scroll in a way that recalls Jackson Pollock’s “Mural” (1943). But the agitated sexuality of these paintings mostly brings to mind a younger contemporary of Mr. Poons’s with whom one would not instinctively compare him: Cecily Brown. These paintings look like Browns with the figures and old master references removed.

David Cohen

Until March 17 (535 W. 24th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, sixth floor, 212-223-2227).

ALAN DAVIE: Mystic Visions
ACA Galleries

The Scottish-born painter Alan Davie turns 87 this year. He has been called one of Britain’s most significant living artists and one of its most famous beatniks. He wears a bushy, long white beard and is an accomplished jazz musician as well as a poet. He made a splash in the New York art scene in the 1950s with the support of Peggy Guggenheim and hung out with the likes of Jackson Pollock. The Museum of Modern Art acquired his work in 1956, but the changing tides of taste led to his relative obscurity in this country.

A smartly composed mini-retrospective at ACA Galleries includes paintings between the 1960s and 2003. It is interesting to see how Mr. Davie’s early work connects with Pollock’s early stenographic abstractions and Adolf Gottlieb’s grid paintings. They were all impacted by Carl Jung, especially his notion of archetypes. In “Turtles Vision No.2” (1967), Mr. Davie employs loosely painted ambiguous forms that are part calligraphy, part object hovering in front of gaily painted and off-kilter jigsaw puzzle shapes.

In his work from the 1970s onward, especially in such paintings as “Iniciación Sexual” and “Indigenas Blind Reader” (both 1988), Mr. Davie incorporated fragments of hand-painted text, in various languages, into his paintings. This adds a richer communicative dimension to paintings that at times can be a bit obscure.

Mr. Davie uses representational imagery in such works as “Little Island Phantasy No.2” (1998), an imaginary landscape of huts, minarets, trees, and rolling hills. Like many of his later paintings, this work calls to mind children’s art and folksy illustration, but the viewer remains aware of his sophistication.

Eric Gelber

Until March 17 (529 W. 20th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, fifth floor, 212-206-8080).