Du­Casse has assembled a group of ten re­cent paintings, nine of which are forced to carry an impossibly didactic load. Du­Casse’s thesis is that nine of the paint­ings derive from the figure and to prove his point he displays a large Cézanne­esque nude, which is number one. The remaining nine paintings are totally ab­stract works in DuCasse’s usual manner. They, as many abstract paintings do, suggest thousands of unspecific objects, animate and inanimate. The fact that DuCasse says they are based on the hu­man body is so curious as to demand further explanation. Does he mean that all the generalized abstract shapes he appears so attached to are actual symbols for specific body parts? His sche­matic approach to shape and arbitrary use of high-keyed color seems to belie any connection with a sensuous human form. This belated attempt to attach a figurative basis to his work is so completely unnecessary that it surely would have been better left unsaid.

—James Monte