Christopher Wool (b. 1955)

‘Stenciled in black, these images step and strut up, down or across large framed sheets of paper, singly or in groups that number up to six. They form friezes and facing pairs; they are upside down or right side up; they face left or right. These works improve with time, gaining in animation, wit and distinctness from one another as you look at them. The contrast of the imperial and the untamed may be a point, but in the end the images are cartoonish. Their bulky blackness, which varies according to how much ink is used, has energy’ (R. Smith, ‘Review/Art; In a Show on the Issues, The Focus Is Outrage,’ in New York Times, 1990).