The Examination

In "The Examination," a figure wrapped in a white cloth rests on an old-fashioned red sofa adorned with long bangs and partly covered by a blue cloth. Judging by her hairstyle, the figure appears to be a woman, but, apart from that, her identity remains as hidden as her form. Behind this luminous ensemble in red, white and blue, six men stand, dressed in dark suits. The floor and windowless walls barely suggest a claustrophobic interior. This ink and gouache drawing is one of at least twenty of similar dimensions that Agustín Lazo completed in the early 1930s, perhaps shortly after returning to Mexico at the end of his second long European season.