“Gilles Aillaud: Paintings 1964–1976”

You won’t confuse French Gilles Aillaud’s paintings of animals for the ones in a World Wildlife Fund calendar: They aren’t cute, or portrayed as majestic beasts roaming through nature. Instead, Aillaud (1928–2005) depicts Lions, Rhinos, Orangutans and the like languishing behind bars or plate glass at the zoo. Aillaud imbues his subjects with a profound sense of alienation, even despair. And given that the work was created in the years bracketing the events of May 1968, they’re arguably allegories for the period, when growing disaffection with French postwar society eventually led to riots and strikes by students and factory workers, leaving France with a major political and cultural hangover that lasted decades.