In three enormous pentagonal diptychs, each about 10 by 13 feet, Michiko Itatani unveiled a drama staged in the shadow of apocalyptic threat, a drama exploding with emotional impact and contemporary painterly ambition. This synthesis of art-historical poses and expressionist technique is not the facile recipe now widely offered for consumption; rather, it is a strange, highly personal palimpsest overlaying Itatani’s figuration on her earlier painted installations, which explored minimal programs with muted palettes and obsessive grids. Like sheets of driving rain, the earlier work’s fragile