Wilshire Center

Controlling the willfulness of ink brushed on paper to make pictures is a risky business. Chinese masters set the tone for this enterprise, and their deceptively casual finesse is not easily rivaled. Elaine de Kooning attempts this ineffable form of ink play in “Grisaille Caves” with mixed results.

De Kooning’s recent viewing of prehistoric wall paintings in the Orient, her discovery of big Sumi brushes and a longstanding fascination with the image of the bull all come together in this work. Outlines of bison, stags and horses roam in and out of pale black washes raining down on small sheets of paper. There are some piquant fleeting conjunctions of chance and willed design here, but too often the artist’s lack of control muddies or distorts the animal imagery.

“Blue-Gold Grotto,” an oil painting on the same theme, is buoyed by the upward flow of brushy areas of rose, blue and yellow. The bison, stag and horses, picked out in sparing curves, have more presence here even if their contours betray an exuberant hand that can’t claim true mastery of line. (Wenger Gallery, 828 N. La Brea Ave., to May 31.)