Pictures Of Fidelman: An Exhibition

Arthur Fidelman, Bronx-born and raised, is a self-confessed failure as a painter. When he goes to Italy to prepare a critical study of Giotto, a zany adventure ensues. Pursued through the streets of Rome by the refugee Susskind, forced to abandon Giotto, feeling a reawakening desire to create art, falling into the hands of art thieves, hand-carving wooden Madonnas for sale, becoming a pimp, attempting to sculpt the perfect hole, Fidelman is a comic creation of genius. This is the story in art of the painter Arthur Fidelman, born in the Bronx and spending years of his life in Italy--Rome, Milan, Florence and Venice--pursuing his tumultuous career through adventure and misadventure. What perhaps saved him from disaster (Fidelman is a comic hero whose every next step is a trap sprung by bad luck as though his luck were good) is that he kept his finger in art, perhaps without knowing it seeking'perfection of the life'as well as the work. Six pictures of Fidelman comprise an exhibition. Six memorable episodes in the life of a man trying to achieve fulfillment as an artist Pictures of Fidelman by Malamud, Bernard