LA CIENEGA AREA

Whether in response to market conditions or more general political reaction, Neo-Classicism is undergoing yet another revival. The latest entrant in the ersatz Ingres and David stakes is local painter Kent Pachuta, hitherto known for a series of low-key studies of figures in relaxed poses.

Pachuta’s current work is an attempt to celebrate the spirit of drawing through painting. His model is baroque classicism, the stylistic vehicle for a series of still lifes and mythological allegories in which large sections of the canvas are left as sketchy outline, as if to stress the power of underlying draftsmanship in even the most seamless painting.

Pachuta torpedoes his own cause, however, by injecting a good deal of ironical humor. An allegorical “portrait” of Australia, for example, resembles a child’s coloring-book outline filled with cliched symbolism; “A Portrait of a Gentleman as Madame de Pompadour as Diana, Goddess of the Hunt” effectively sends up the pretensions of the ancien regime.

Why anyone would want to extol the virtues of a style synonymous with a decadent aristocracy is a mystery. One explanation seems to lie in much current painting’s desperate attempts to justify itself through grandiose historical models. Fortunately, like Marc Antony, Pachuta is far more successful in burying authoritarian classicism than in praising it. (Eilat Gordin Gallery, 644 N. Robertson Blvd., to Oct. 31.)