Leland Bell

Bell's paintings of interlocking human forms evoke a world of psychological dissonances and seething undercurrents of energies repressed or let loose. Applying Juan Gris's ""architecture of planes'' to the here and now, Bell draws an analytical map of social relationships stretched taut. His colors exert massive pressures: acid green jostles red-brown; pink explodes against turquoise. Emblematic nudes with powerful torsos embody artistic conventions that reverberate back to Roman walls or Etruscan panels. Bodies are so palpable, you feel you could reach out and touch them. This album, said to be the first monograph on Bell, ties in with an exhibition of his works at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Bell is a maverick artist whose jarring pictures may either repel or stun the viewer. (December 19)