Eric Fischl's early paintings are haunting and erie impressions of a uniquely American landscape charred by the hopeless fire of the American dream–stoked by the delusion that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is free and ours for the taking. A boy masturbating in a plastic waiting pool and another boy standing in front of a woman sprawled out naked in a darkened room with one hand behind his back in a purse are visual metaphors are our own depraved, amoral, and homicidal predilections–we're capable of anything.

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Eric Fischl's early paintings, mostly painted in the early 80s, are on display till the end of the this week at the Skarstedt Gallery in New York.  www.skarstedt.com