From the very beginning, Carmen Cicero made an impression in the art world. He joined the acclaimed Periodot Gallery on Madison Avenue in New York in 1957 and by 1965, Cicero had won two Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships and a Ford Foundation prize, and was in important exhibitions at such venues as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. After a fire destroyed his studio and a large body of his work in 1971, Cicero returned to figurative expressionism in the later 1970s before embarking on a new approach to his work in the late 1980s: A kind of expression difficult to define and variously termed by critics as “fantasy,” “mystery,” “surrealism” and “visionary.” These works produce a peculiar atmosphere, a strange, enigmatic spellimages that linger in the unconscious mind. Filled with beautiful pieceswatercolors, paintings, drawings, and collagesthis fine book offers an expansive survey of the life work of Carmen Cicero.By Phyllis Braff307 photos307 photos