FINE ARTS

Richard
Kozlow
and his
The Abduction."

Eillebel with
cause

Artist Richard Kozlow
breaks the rules.

LESLEY PEARL

Staff Writer

I

never was good at draw-
ing within the lines,"
Richard Kozlow laughed
in a deep bellow, just au-
dible over Stravinsky.
Classical music, a rotary
phone unintentionally cov-
ered in oil and tempera,
masks created by grandchil-
dren —"We all wear masks,
don't we?" — and a rowing
machine used at 5 p.m. every
day grace the studio of the 66-
year-old Royal Oak artist.
Somewhat of a maverick
and a self-proclaimed loner,
Mr. Kozlow couldn't stay
within the lines of society ei-
ther. He was kicked out of
Cass Technical High School
and college classes at Arts
and Crafts - now known as
the Center for Creative Stud-
ies. Years later, he received
honorary degrees from both
institutions.
Mr. Kozlow will hold a ret-
rospective sale at his Royal

Oak studio, 811 N. Main
Street, Sept. 19-20 from 10
a.m. to 5 p.m.
Mr. Kozlow is outspoken —
unforgiving of the Holocaust
and unsympathetic toward
artists who will not work
without National Endowment
for the Arts funding.
"They whine about cuts in
grant money. It's bull. If you
want to make art you will,"
Mr. Kozlow said.
He recalls the early days in
the 1950s when Detroit had
almost no galleries and little
support for painters. Mr. Ko-
zlow credits individual en-
thusiasts rather than muse-
ums for the success of local
artists. He believes the area
always has maintained an ac-
tive, aware audience. Muse-
urns and structures, he said,
have been a handicap, treat-
ing Detroit artists as second-
rate and with benign neglect.
"I never was worried about

making a living as a painter.
It was impossible," he said.
Mr. Kozlow accepted a job
with an advertising agency in
1948. He remained there 12
years, supporting his wife and
four daughters. In 1960, he
pulled up his roots and moved
the family to Mexico. For one
year he painted exclusively.
Upon his return to the Unit-
ed States, he sold all of his
paintings in a show. He has
been painting full time ever
since.
Mr. Kozlow's works, pieces
spanning several decades, in-
clude landscapes done in the
1950s, black and white tem-
pera-on-paper paintings of
Spanish bullfights in the
1970s and his best-selling
"Zaftig Ladies," begun in the
1980s.
He refers to his Zaftig
Ladies, a grouping of busty,
whimsical women done in
bright acrylics, as his happi-
est pieces. However, his lat-
est Zaftig Ladies have
changed with time. Once
completely nude, the figures
now sport bikini bottoms.
"I guess I'm getting prud-
ish in my old age. This fami-

ly values stuff is getting to
me," Mr. Kozlow chuckled.
Hardly the words to de-
scribe a man who spent hours
backstage at the Detroit bur-
lesque shows in the 1960s
sketching — or the artist who
paints men as predators with
phallic noses because he be-
lieves "men are just after one
thing."

Although some people find
Mr. Kozlow's work offensive,
the works he finds most re-
volting will not be included in
the sale — his Holocaust
pieces.
"I don't forgive. Blood and
burning bodies — it's such an
outrageous insult. I don't
know how any Jew can for-
give," Mr. Kozlow said. "I do
political things for my own ed-
ification. And I don't show
them often.
"I think it's important to do
a Holocaust series even if it
sits in a drawer for 10 years.
One day, someone will see it
and be moved by it," Mr. Ko-
zlow said. "But for now peo-
ple just want pretty, trendy
pieces of art on their walls.
This isn't like that." ❑

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