The evolution of a figure painter

The earlier pieces are the most tentative. “Bosra,’’ a small 1960 painting, features a milky brown bulb with heavy white brushstrokes circling it, suggesting a hooded figure, but at the right dabs and lines of sharp brown and orange carry the heat of the composition, setting up a tension between shape and color.

Soon enough, the body became more explicit. “Rhoda,’’ a 1966 painting, looks down upon a seated nude, but she seems less a nude than a series of taut zigzags — protrusions of arms and thighs surrounding a blue Marge Simpson ’do hovering over the two red arcs of her breasts. The background, mostly steamy orange with a poison-yellow quadrant in front, commands as much attention as the figure and is equally keyed up.

That edgy interplay of figure and ground is intrinsic in McNeil’s vibrant, declarative canvases. “Bather #4’’ (1968) features a mustard-orange avalanche from the upper left suggesting a swimmer. Limbs scissor at the center. Brilliant green, red, and orange form a patchwork around the figure, and there’s a purple triangle in the distance, perhaps a wave peaking, throwing spray against and orange sky.

While the figure is unmistakable, it isn’t entirely readable, yet it is an integral element of the entire composition. McNeil played similar tricks with space — is that purple wave in the distance or right on the surface? Bringing figuration into abstraction, he could flirt with the viewer’s expectations and defy them at the same time. For this viewer, that’s spine-tingling.