Tom McGlynn reviews Al Taylor: Early Paintings at David Zwirner Gallery, New York, on view through April 15, 2017.

McGlynn writes: “What at first may underwhelm, in other words, can become an inexorable undertow that sets any preconceived notion of painting adrift in a sea of local allusion and wandering association…There is a token of recognition of the “official” New York School here with a contrary impulse for the artist to convince us that his own gesture is a necessary postcedent which can renew the waning power of its predecessor’s poetry. Rather than an outright rejection of his inheritance as a naturalized New York painter, Taylor stoops, and then turns back around, to conquer.”