LA CIENEGA AREA

Rufino Tamayo’s art is so well known here that a show of lithographs and collagraphs (1964-73) can’t be expected to deliver surprises. It doesn’t, but it does offer a colorful variety of familiar subjects by the Mexican master. An electrified “Wild Dog,” a host of spectral figures, bright watermelon wedges, sculptural faces and strange personages inspired by Pre-Columbian art populate this show of graphic expression.

Typically, Tamayo uses a monolithic form of composition, centering a single figure or face as a strong, simplified shape. A “Green Personage,” for example, has arms thrown up in a circle, which echoes the arc of its stylized legs. A profile in another piece is made like a gesture drawing, with looping, overlapping lines defining bulbous contours. Color is applied in broad planes--washy in lithographs and pebbly in more highly textured collagraphs.

Tamayo’s failings are obvious here in works that depend on bright color to disguise the thinness of their drawing or the artist’s penchant for the decorative. His strength is also in evidence: namely, his authoritative merger of Mexican tradition with European modernism. (Mekler Gallery, 651 La Cienega Blvd., to Feb. 15.)