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Banshee, whole no. 7, March 1945

Page 5

The balance was divided up into a selection of Bok's most serious (and, his own favorite) work, most of it year old, all deriving from his earlier period of formative creation. The subject matter was grotesque, in one or two instances baroque. Among these latter were three or four pieces of interest, stimulating by virtue of a successful blend of technique and content.

Pointedly absent was even a single example of Bok's portraiture. In this field he does not excel, but at least the technique may be said to be almost his own. It is, of course, rather closely duplicated by a thousand modern portrait painters. However, there is a certain touch that distinguishes the Bok portrait. It may be said to lie in an amazingly shrewd synthesis of face and character, bringing out a peculiar blend whose faithfulness to the original is commendable.

Singular about the paintings were their universal coat of varnish. Highlights glinted everywhere. Coat upon coat softening the harsher colors, bringing out the natural tints. The trick is, of course, an old one. Few authentic painters use it. It is dressy but artistically dishonest, covering up a lack of ingenuity and true artistic invention with a cheap, eye-catching gloss.

Viewing the collection as a whole, depressing conclusions were inevitable. Without a shadow of a doubt, Bok had proved his ability to shine in a trend of art so small as to be virtually invisible. And even here, in retrospect, he was no master, had produced nothing new, created little, drawn for most of his subject material on the written word. Ghoulies, gobblies, ghoosties, beasties, casting conventional baleful glance upon the spectator, to whom variety in this metier soon proves monotonous.

That Bok is entirely capable of completely mastering most forms of commercial art cannot be denied. The majority of his techniques lend themselves admirably to the poster, magazine cover, penny-dreadful decorations, calendar sheets, the blowsy, lush, slick finishes of fanciful picture book illustrations to delight the eyes and minds of children. The roots of these techniques remain immovable, however, in the soil of the fin e siecle. They continue to feed upon the vitiated substance of a time already dead, but still not decently buried.

That he is utterly incapable of creating a modern content to suit his antiquated techniques is also true. The shoe can no longer fit and it is impossible to fill with flesh and bone a vessel made to contain vapors.

Even the most decayed and decadent of the great painters could not escape the life about them. Life emerged in their colors and canvases in whatever form, but it was there, moving and breathing. There is no life in the art of Hannes Bok. It hangs in a vacuum between abysses. In such instances in which he has had occasion to produce lithoghraphs for sale by a large gallery, the technique itself was

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The balance was divided up into a selection of Bok's most serious (and, his own favorite) work, most of it year old, all deriving from his earlier period of formative creation. The subject matter was grotesque, in one or two instances baroque. Among these latter were three or four pieces of interest, stimulating by virtue of a successful blend of technique and content. Pointedly absent was even a single example of Bok's portraiture. In this field he does not excel, but at least the technique may be said to be almost his own. It is, of course, rather closely duplicated by a thousand modern portrait painters. However, there is a certain touch that distinguishes the Bok portrait. It may be said to lie in an amazingly shrewd synthesis of face and character, bringing out a peculiar blend whose faithfulness to the original is commendable. Singular about the paintings were their universal coat of varnish. Highlights glinted everywhere. Coat upon coat softening the harsher colors, bringing out the natural tints. The trick is, of course, an old one. Few authentic painters use it. It is dressy but artistically dishonest, covering up a lack of ingenuity and true artistic invention with a cheap, eye-catching gloss. Viewing the collection as a whole, depressing conclusions were inevitable. Without a shadow of a doubt, Bok had proved his ability to shine in a trend of art so small as to be virtually invisible. And even here, in retrospect, he was no master, had produced nothing new, created little, drawn for most of his subject material on the written word. Ghoulies, gobblies, ghoosties, beasties, casting conventional baleful glance upon the spectator, to whom variety in this metier soon proves monotonous. That Bok is entirely capable of completely mastering most forms of commercial art cannot be denied. The majority of his techniques lend themselves admirably to the poster, magazine cover, penny-dreadful decorations, calendar sheets, the blowsy, lush, slick finishes of fanciful picture book illustrations to delight the eyes and minds of children. The roots of these techniques remain immovable, however, in the soil of the fin e siecle. They continue to feed upon the vitiated substance of a time already dead, but still not decently buried. That he is utterly incapable of creating a modern content to suit his antiquated techniques is also true. The shoe can no longer fit and it is impossible to fill with flesh and bone a vessel made to contain vapors. Even the most decayed and decadent of the great painters could not escape the life about them. Life emerged in their colors and canvases in whatever form, but it was there, moving and breathing. There is no life in the art of Hannes Bok. It hangs in a vacuum between abysses. In such instances in which he has had occasion to produce lithoghraphs for sale by a large gallery, the technique itself was -5