Constructs: Stories by Richard Kostelanetz (review)

80 Books Beware’ (1966), Adam looks up from within a funnel-like structure to an Earth in the throes of explosion. From 1973his portrait of Adam, who was previously shown bareheaded and bald or with a sailor cap, is presented wearing a headpiecederived from the childhood sailor cap-which gives his head a silhouettethat clearly refersto the mushroomcloud oftheatomic explosion. The titlesofsomeofthepaintingsseem toconfirm this attitude: ‘Wake Up Adam. It‘s Getting Latc‘ (19741iiiid ‘:ld;im Why Are You Trembling’ (1970), for example. The books are well produced. The almost 50 full-color reproductions in each are excellent, considering their size. The Hausner volume has the advantage of reproducing details of some of the paintings. The one criticism I have is that the paintings are not shown in chronological order or any other order that seems obvious. In the Hausncr book they seem to he grouped by subject matter, but within the same subject, the paintings are often out of chronological order. In the Brauer book the division seemsto be that of medium; first the oils, then watercolor and gouache. In both these cases it is difficult for readers to get a clear idea of the artist’s development without some confusion. The Magic World of Ivan Generalib. NabojSaTomaSeviC. trans. from Italian by John Shepley, Rizzoli, New York 1976.$27.50. 233 pp., 33 documentary illustrations. including 88 in color. Reviewed by Alfred Werner* Although TomaSeviC‘sname appears on thejacket and title page as the author, 70% of the text was contributed by the painter. Very informally and very cheerfully, the artist, one of the most famous ‘primitives’of today, talked for many hours into a taperecorder : about his humble native village of Croatia, where, along with other peasant painters, he is still living and working; about his astonishing career; about his original technique of painting and his very personal aesthetics. TomaSevit.edited the tapes and also contributed a brief introduction and a number 01‘ explanatory interspersed in the oral autobiography. Born at Hlebine in 1914, Generalit. received little formal education and, like his neighbors, looked after the land and animals he owned. As a matter of fact, he still owns land, yet he cannot now be called a farmer, as he spends most of his time painting. The book credits him with having produced 800 paintings, and each onetakes him many weeksand even months. Whilehe had already developed the urge to paint at the age of 16, it was only in 1931that he gave in to this urge. He was, however, not satisfied with his early watercolors on paper and oils on canvas: ‘I changed to glass when I realized that with this technique I could obtain fresher colors and put in more details.’ Though glass is too hard, too resistant a surface to permit the vibrancy, the personal touch, the immediacyof painting on glass, makes it easier to handle for an amateur. When a picture painted with oils on glass is finished, the pane is turned around so that through the glass a viewer sees the design reversed but with the colors enhanced. Like Henri Rousseau, to whom he has been compared, Generalit. is a color ‘magician’: ‘Color is the chief means I use to express my thoughts and feelings.Paints are never sufficient for my needs, and the colors I use certainly aren’t found in stores: I get the shade I need by mixing three, four, or five of them until I’m satisfied. Colors are like harmony, song, music; they must harmonize among themselves and not be in conflict.’ He also told his compatriot: ‘I paint as I do because I don’t know how to do it any other way. even if I’m being told that the people I paint are much lessugly in reality.. ..Myjob isto paint. and the critic’s job is to write and explain.’ His pictures, well reproduced in this handsome book, are fascinating. His themes arecountry fairs, brawls, conflagrations, men and women in or outside the village, animals (including unicorns) and all kinds of quaint anecdotes. He paints landscapes and often winter scenes. Someof the paintings have a poetic tinge, through a curious fusion of the real and the...