Two forms lie in the foreground of this painting by Austin Martin White at Petzel Gallery, possibly representing an animal (red) and person (blue) though they’re so abstracted it’s hard to say. Loosely based on mid-century artist American Bob Thompson’s ‘La Mort des Infants,’ itself a version of French 17th century Laurent de la Hyre rendition of the same theme, the figures are perhaps too horrific to picture, referring to slain children and mothers, victims of Biblical King Herod’s murderous decree that children under two be slaughtered. Informed by the recent, 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Thompson processed contemporary events through the lens of the past; here, White’s painting continues the tradition. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 18th).
