Early works and fine figures

This exhibit features mostly early works by Powers, who came of age during World War II with a keen social conscience, and studied with Zerbe at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Several paintings lean heavily into surrealistic allegory, as Powers skewers the folly of ambition and willful debauchery.

In the bleary bacchanalia “The Dancing Bear’’ (1950-1952) partygoers look sozzled and spent as the top-hatted bear toots on his harmonica. The 1948 painting “Nero’’ takes on the same theme, with the lithe emperor squinting at his wine glass and gripping his violin as the sky heats with flames. The stories are a little pat, but the technique is strong.

Sometimes the allegory goes over the top. “The Three Fates’’ (1970) depicts robed, implacable women gesturing operatically, orchestrating destiny. The sky behind them swirls with too many colors. It’s all a little comical. But it hangs in a brilliant pairing with a later work, a second, more subdued “Three Fates’’ (1983), portraying suburban ladies chatting on a patio.

This artist’s great skill is figuration. The encaustic “Three War-Time Farmers With Scythes’’ (1955) brutally portrays the warrior farmers standing back to back as if to defend their land. They are haggard men. The hollow cheeks and strong, bony feet of the one in the middle are artful and heartbreaking. Works such as this, more than the all-too familiar cautionary tale of Nero, spell out the costs of power placed in the wrong hands.

Sharp inquisition