The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 46

6 Part IV- Jan. 17. 1977 ART REVIEW 'Fantasy Drawings' at Huntington Library irr 1 I Holiday Spa has different 1 membership programs BY WILLIAM WILSON Tlmti Staff Wrlttr Call about our Introductory 2-week membership program. wJ 1 'Jill 'v 7 Pf in Li I 1 1" 'y(. l' ffil kit mWk withstandingthe least crazy of the imaginative arts.

In fantasy art the recognizable world remains basically intact, it's just that funny things happen. People's heads are usually a bit too large. Adults have the faces of aged babies and the asexual bodies of children. The world is normal but out of scale. Daisies grow as tall as oaks.

People grow small enough to ride on the back of an ermine. Perhaps most importantly, nothing is ordinary. Everybody is important and magical. The delight of fantasy art is the ease with which we adjust to it. A child could understand it.

As a matter of fact they do understand it so readily that fantasy art is regarded as a child-directed art. To become acceptable to adults it must adjust to the form of caricature or, in our times, science-fiction illustration. It offers the forbidden pleasures grown-ups find in toy stores. The thing that gets annoying about contemporary popular fantasy art is that its makers don't trust us to recognize a fantasy when we see it. They use cuteness, leering rationality or mountains of obvious theatrical gimcrackery as a constant and irritating reminder that this is just pretend, folks.

It treats the audience like a bunch of borderline psychotics whose brains will blow out without constant reminders to keep their heads straight. The fantasy drawings at Huntington are artistically superior because they credit their audience with enough intelligent rationality to be able to deal with fantasy comfortably. Charles Doyle was an avocational fantasy artist. His work was exhibited and published but he was occupational a civil servant who made his art mainly for the love of it. His style is based on pale water-color washes forming into clouds and trees around his dolichocephalic characters.

The work comes across as authentically gentle, dotty and private. His brother, Richard, was a pro. He illustrated books, designed the famous trademark cover for Punch and was by all odds a better technician. If he is a trifle less interesting it is because his very professionalism signals a detachment that goes more with a performing art than with the sense of engagement we feel in Charles. In the end it's not a question of one's superiority over the other.

It's a question of whether we prefer the feeling of contacting the slightly awkward reality of a died-in-the-wool eccentric style or the feeling of an actor flawlessly playing a part. The sense of safety we get from the latter is what makes Richard Doyle or illustrators like "Alice's" John Tenniel or Palmer Cox of "The Brownies" great entertainers in fantasy. The exhibition, charmingly organized by Robert Wark, continues through "Fantasy" is among the main buzzwords of the 70s. As a concept it seems to be the successor to "camp" of the jargon-ridden '60s. Both tend to indicate that we are about to indulge in an aesthetic experience that has an edge of forbiddenness combined with a leavening of humor.

From the androgynous glitter of Elton John to the kinky sentimentality of the new "King Kong," the 70s have loved fantasy. Maybe it's all a coverup for- repressed sexual urges. That doesn't get us very far in understanding fantasy as a specific urge because they tell us'that everything that isn't actually sex is a cover-up for sex. It's too generalized. The evidence suggests that what we really want from contemporary fantasy is the chance for a good cathartic wallow in pure childlike magic, thoughtless pleasure and a bit of sleaze.

You wouldn't suppose that anyplace as unshakably dignified and tasteful as the Huntington Library Art Gallery would be able to get in on that. Yet the grand old institution has an astonishing way of sending signals that it knows where us regular folks are at. Whenever this happens I feel as though the queen just went by, waved her hanky and winked. Did that really happen? "English Fantasy Drawings" is the present occasion of respectfully delighted astonishment. There is nothing sleazy or tasteless about it but it has one thing in common with the lame-and-glitter-Ken Russell-Brian de Palma world going on outside.

It's entertaining as the dickens and just a little weird. While I was in the gallery showing the illustrations of Charles Doyle, a young woman looked at the exhibit, shuddered delightedly and ran to get her friend in the next gallery. "Come and look at this guy. He's really crazy." That was mainly a compliment. It also had a vaguely, authentically unsettled edge that suggests differences between the contemporary fantasy art that is pure entertainment and the kind that is worth our attention in a great art museum.

It also tells us the differences between fantasy art and other kinds of imaginary arts like surrealism, folk or psychotic art. "English Fantasy Drawings" is mainly devoted to watercolor illustrations by Charles Doyle (1832-1898) (incidentally, the father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), his brother Richard and a prologue gallery of earlier British drawings whose authors sometimes touched on fantasy people like Fuseli, Cruikshank, the apocalyptic landscapist John Martin, arthitect Robert Adam and a humorist like Richard Newton whose 18th-century work might have served as the prototype of Richard Fleish-er's animated film of Gulliver's travels. Taken together, they tell us that fantasy drawing is the young gallery visitor not hfNff 7 i A4 111' You've waited long enough. Slim down and firm up now. Holiday Spa can help you make physical improvement a pleasure.

Plus steam, sauna, and whirlpool for a special treat at all clubs. Even heated swimming pools at key locations. Gals, ask about Jazznastics-fun group exercises done to uptempo music. Don't wait any longer. A better tomorrow starts today at Holiday Spa.

Join now! Regular membership rates go up February 1. Announcing our newest location serving the North and West Valley: 9143 De Soto Avenue at Nordhoff 213882-5912 Anaheim Enclno Long Beach North West Valley Westminster 510 South Beach Boulevard 17031 Ventura Boulevard 4101 Atlantic Boulevard 9143 De Soto Ave. 6757 Westminster Avenue South of Lincoln Avenue Corner of Carson West of Balboa Westminster Center at Nordhoff (213) 426-8874 (714) 826-0381 Costa Mesa 2300 Harbor Boulevard Harbor Center (714) 549-3368 (714) 894-3387 Hollywood 7080 Hollywood Blvd. Corner LaBrea Ave. SAFA Medical Center (213)986-6330 Huntington Beach 18585 Main Street Main St.

at Beach Blvd. (714) 842-1451 (213) 882-5912 Orange 622 East Katella Avenue West of Tustin Ave. (714) 639-2441 (213)469-6308 trim --n i 1 HSf www' Save on custom size sportswear, 13.99-30.99 Prig. Pants in sizes 30-40, jackets, blouses and tops in 38-46. 'Wk III Choose from assorted colors.

From the group, blazer. Prig. $45, 30.99 Print blouse. Prig. $23, 1 And classic pants.

Prig. $20, 13.99 Happy hunting, custom sizes, in our Lady Bullock Sportswear 29 A Sis' Mi 9 Save $10 to $20 on top designer wigs. We've cut the prices on our most popular wigs by such well-known names as Fashion Tress, Christian Dior and Mr. to name just a few. These wigs are regularly $20 to $40, but now they're only 9.99-12.99.

All are 100 Modacrylic fiber in beautiful, natural shades. Choose from a chic close-to-the-head cut, playful headfull of curls, a long graceful fluff, sophisticated classic, an exotic China look and more. So hurry in for best selection. Sale ends January 26. Hats and Hair, 800.

The Broadway DOWNTOWN PASADENA, WESTW00D SANTA ANA SHERMAN OAKS LAKEW00D DEL AMO LAHABRA NORTHRIDGE SOUTH COAST PLAZA SAN DIEGO WESTCOVINA CENTURY CITY.