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Joanna Beall Westermann, 'Human Cannonball 2,' 1959.

Joanna Beall Westermann

Human Cannonball 2, 1959. 

Gouache on paper

13 1/2 x 10 5/8 inches. 

John Yau has highlighted Joanna Beall Westermann: Works from the Estate, our exhibition of works on paper and paintings, as his mid-March pick for Hyperallergic

"I was particularly struck by the gouaches in her current exhibition at George Adams Gallery. Each one conjures a world governed by its own logic, yet the multiple domains hold together. While compositionally simple, I was mesmerized by the mostly gray "Human Cannonball 2" (1959). A bearded man in a brown gown rises up into a gray sky, possibly launched from a cannon below. Is he a performer or an aspiring saint? Are both follies? What does it mean to want to be noticed? 

The exhibition is on view at the gallery through April 6.