DOUGLAS HUEBLER - "Crocodile Tears" - NYTimes.com 521 West 21st Street, Chelsea Through April 28 The Conceptualist Douglas Huebler (1924-97) had too many ideas to contain in any single format. Despite his vow in 1970 to add no more objects to a world already full of them, he was not unproductive. He painted, drew comic strips and wrote, all with exceptional verve. His multipronged approach is well represented in this exhibition of works from the 1980s. It revolves around a screenplay he wrote from 1979 to 1981 called "Crocodile Tears." Several plotlines emerge from the mix of photographs, texts, drawings, comics and Huebler's painted imitations of works by Cézanne, Mondrian, Picasso and de Chirico. A performance artist is to be assassinated while performing above a swimming pool containing live crocodiles. A collector negotiates with a shady man to acquire a stolen Degas painting. A story about a visiting artist at a provincial college art department is an acid sendup of academia. Most of his collages of words and images include a nondescript photograph from his signature work, "Variable Piece #70," an endless project to photograph everyone alive. Captions state that at least one person in a given picture is "the soul of kindness" or "his or her worst enemy" or some such vapid characterization. Mr. Huebler's production values were not as polished as those of many high-concept artists now, but they effectively animate ideas that are still relevant about money, power, ambition, institutions and other aspects of the art world's seamier side. What a shame that "Crocodile Tears" the movie was never made.