Now 82, the New York–based artist Nancy Spero has been plumbing the totems and taboos of the human (especially female) psyche for more than a half-century, and her early work on view at Galerie Lelong still retains much of its primal, evocative power. The earth mother in this painting, for instance, holds two figurine-like children in an ambivalent clutch. Is she
cradling them, or using their bodies to shield herself? The mystery deepens — could it be Kate Winslet practicing her Oscar speech?
