Andres Nagel

In his imaginative sculptures, reliefs and collages, Spanish Basque artist Andres Nagel (b. 1947) fuses social satire, surreal fantasy, Goya-esque irony, religious and baroque imagery, and allusons to Old Masters. In Suicide , a fragmented flat figure whose head is an arrow plunges from a window. The couple frantically jitterbugging in Mary McDonald Doesn't Control Her Legs suggests the urban graffiti of Jean Dubuffet. In Mickey Mouse , Mickey embraces Minnie in a suspended cloth that forms a secular icon. This lavishly illustrated monograph weds some 200 color plates to art critic Lucie-Smith's observant essay on a chameleon artist who uses different visual languages to suit the task at hand. Nagel's still lifes, violent in atmosphere, churn with latent meanings. His speculative, hermetic artworks animate jazz musicians, astronauts walking in space, leaping monkeys and eerie headless torsos with lamps for eyes. (Jan.)