Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)

STUDIES - Donald E. Morse: The Joyful Celebration oflJfe. Kurt Vonnegut's Affirmative Vision in Galapagos and Bluebeard

illustrates once again the truth articulated in 'The Emperor's New Clothes." Whatever the choice Vonnegut's satire in Bluebeard works because, in addition to its implied and stated criticism, he offers readers a positive standard by which to judge both Abstract Expressionists and illustrators in Karabekian's final canvas, "Now It's the Women's Turn." This monumental painting records in exact minute detail the moment World War II ended in Europe. Although Karabekian had observed the setting of his painting "when the sun came up the day the Second World War ended in Europe" (281), the meaning, the significance of this event only revealed itself to him over time (as the meaning or non-meaning of Dresden unfolded itself over time to Vonnegut). The 5,219 figures in this enormous sixty-four by eight foot canvas, appear convincingly real not because the artist saw or knew them but because before creating their image on canvas, he invented a detailed war story for each and only after that painted "the person it had happened to" (283). His painting is at once as precise as Gregory's illustrations and in some important ways as imaginatively playful as an Abstract Expressionist canvas. The painter who's career prompted Vonnegut to create an Abstract Expressionist proficient in rendering such a scene in great detail was Jackson Pollock who, according to Vonnegut, did "more than any other human being to make his nation, and especially New York City, the unchallenged center of innovative painting in all this world" (Fates 41). Although Pollock spent much of his life dripping paint onto canvas, Vonnegut rightly emphasizes that he "was capable of depicting in photographic detail [any scene desired],

.. He had been trained in his craft by, among others, that most exacting American master of representational art

.. Thomas Hart Benton" (42). In "Now It Is the Women's Turn" Karabekian returns to "life itself' which he, like most artists of his generation had ignored "utterly" for very good reasons as Vonnegut notes. And could any moralist have called for a more appropriate reaction by painters to World War II, to the death camps and Hiroshima and all the rest of it than pictures without persons or artifacts, without even allusions to the blessings of Nature? 121