“H.C. Westermann: Works on Paper”

Among America’s postwar artists, Horace Clifford Westermann (1922–1981) was easily one of the most idiosyncratic. His work whirled together texts, cartoonish graphics and folk art craftsmanship into a stew that was as surreal as it was sui generis. Though wildly exuberant, Westermann’s works were often haunted by intimations of death—due, in no small part, to his service in the Pacific during World War II aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise, which endured waves of kamikaze attacks during the battle for Okinawa. Though Westermann is most often associated with eccentric sculptures that looked liked they’d escaped from a demented woodworker’s shop, this show focuses on his equally mad drawings.