The ten large-format paintings shown here (all untitled, 1988) exemplify Franz Wanner’s basic mode of work during the last two years. They demonstrate a highly self-willed development that is obstinately committed to frugality. He draws on his intrinsic personality as a sculptor, articulating it in all aspects of his work—the subject matter as well as the painterly rendering.

For one thing, there are the surfaces: the pigments are deliberately built up as earth-like, crusty deposits. Wanner also develops an unusual spatiality in his paintings. In his work of the early ’80s, he made frugal