Carmen is given a Visiting Artist residency at the American Academy in Rome (spring ’02), producing many drawings—a practice that he continues with renewed enthusiasm. Returns to New York and explores favorite themes in his graphic works, which include depictions of artists and models, seduction scenes, and interactions among stereotyped people. Dogs are a favorite motif. He has stated: “In some instances there is an untold narrative—as if someone has come upon a scene in the middle of a happening and is trying to figure out what is going on. In no instance is there an attempt to make a political statement. If there is any statement, it is about the human condition.” Adverse to political art, he likes to say, “the moralist tells how it ought to be, the artist tells us how it is”—and points out that fifty years from now, most people will not know what was going on in the political sphere of our time. The Lover (’02) and The Mob (’09) portray some of the cast of characters Cicero enjoys creating. “Humor and facial expressions in art were considered a kind of taboo in my generation,” he remembers, “despite this, I decided to move straight ahead with my natural instincts.” These later drawings go all the way back to the days before Cicero became a serious artist, when he was drawing cartoon characters—some stolen, some made up. “However,” he explains, “these late drawings contain all the knowledge of composition, line, space, and form that I’ve gained through the years of making art, along with my knowledge of the human condition.” When people are puzzled by the content of his drawings, he likes to quote William Blake: “Do what you will, life’s a fiction filled with contradiction.” In drawings completed in 2023 and 2024, there is a return to his earlier graphic works from the 1960s combining abstraction with figurative elements.

Solo Exhibition: June Kelly Gallery (’24)

Group Exhibitions: June Kelly Gallery, New York (’09, ’17).