VISIONS

Sills (Inspirations, 1989; ALA Notable) presents four more portraits, each of a woman of extraordinary imagination and vision: Impressionist Mary Cassatt plus three contemporary artists. British blue-blood Leonora Carrington (b. 1917) is a surrealist painter, at one time an associate of Max Ernst's, who has lived in Mexico since 1942. Betye Saar (b. 1926), an African- American who makes intricate symbolic constructions of found materials, was influenced by seeing the Watts Towers being built when she was a child. New Yorker Mary Frank, born in London in 1933 of Jewish parents, came to the US in 1940; her early interest in dance has informed her haunting, elegant figures in austere plaster. For each, Sills presents the concerns and experiences of her life as they shape, inform, and enrich her art, discussing its meaning, style, and techniques with unusual grace and intelligence. Along with well-chosen color reproductions, she includes photos of the artists as children and as adults. Another excellent contribution. Full picture credits; bibliography. (Biography. 9+)