Jonathan Lasker, "Early Works 1977–1985"

Emerging in the "Pictures"-era heyday of late-’70s Postmodernism, Lasker's paintings ran against the grain during a moment when deconstructions of the mass media and art's authenticity were all the rage, and his medium had been pronounced most decidedly dead. Lasker's Pop Art–like pirouettes and basket-weave patterns applied in thick, distinct lines of pigment were definitely meta, but stuck to first principles of applying a mark to canvas. This look back at those works proves that they hold up in a 21st-century light.