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"   Photo: Paul Kasmin Gallery  A couple of years ago, Santi Moix, the Barcelona-born painter, stopped by New York&amp;#039;s Strand bookstore to pick up a book to bring back to his daughter in Barcelona. He found a $5 copy of Mark Twain&amp;#039;s Huckleberry Finn and after he bought it, he found a $100 bill inside. For Moix, who&amp;#039;d spent years working on a series of paintings inspired by Cervates&amp;#039; Don Quixote, it was a like a neon arrow pointing in a the direction of his new muse. &amp;quot;The bill was clean...stiff,&amp;quot; he said, adding that he instantly knew, &amp;quot;that was the message.&amp;quot; Last week, , the fruits of what followed\u2014an artist&amp;#039;s intense study and personal rendering of the classic American hero-tale told through a vibrant palette and watery brush strokes\u2014went on display in a series of paintings and collages entitled, &amp;quot;Santi Moix on Huckleberry Finn,&amp;quot; at Paul Kasmin Gallery. The paintings are crammed together on the walls against a backdrop of free-flowing sketches in thick black. In corners of the two-room show, the mix of watercolors and sketches make a complex feast for the eyes. &amp;quot;I spent a week alone in the gallery,&amp;quot; the stout Spaniard told me, &amp;quot;It was a special week, of recreating the drawings from my original sketchbook in charcoal on the gallery walls.&amp;quot; Though Moix said his telling of the classic allegory &amp;quot;is not different,&amp;quot; even a casual glance at the work presents a challenge to that statement. The colorful, almost frenetic canvases were punctuated with curious, darting sets of wild eyes and hauntingly gruesome images (in one, a stack of severed heads resembled a horror-show totem pole; in another, a saw gripped by a slime-green monster-ish hand hung above a sky-blue body silently screeching an impending doom). If the interpretation was unique, the journey of the river winding along from confused boyhood to unwavering adulthood remained in tact. &amp;quot;I never own what I do and that has made me feel free,&amp;quot; Moix said as a final thought. &amp;quot;Santi Moix on Huckleberry Finn&amp;quot; is on view until February 11 at 293 Tenth Avenue. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/books/news/a8087/the-gruesome-side-of-huckleberry-finn-35204/>