WILSHIRE CENTER

Lorser Feitelson’s “Boulder Series,” done over a three-year period (1961--63), hinges on a recurring form that’s, well, boulder shaped. Contrasted against flat planes of color, these big, stark blobs float in and out of the picture plane as they explore the interplay of light and dark and the idea of advancing and receding space.

Feitelson, who died in 1978, described this non-objective work as “Magical Space Forms.” One of the leaders of the West Coast Hard Edge school, Feitelson was interested in the interchangeability of form and space, and toward that end he developed a visual vocabulary that’s not quite geometric and not quite organic. Feitelson dubbed it “anthropomorphic abstraction,” which is an apt description of these scholarly inquiries.

Elegant though Feitelson’s work is, it looks rather dated at the moment. In fact, it looks so dated that it’s about due for an Appropriationist/Simulationist style revival. Look for it in the galleries on New York’s trendy Lower East Side. (Tobey C. Moss, 7321 Beverly Blvd., to April 25.)