THOLE, Karel

   Working name of Dutch illustrator Carolus Adrianus Maria Thole (1914-), resident in Milan since 1958. The best-known European sf illustrator, KT's book covers have appeared in virtually every country in continental Europe, as well as in the UK and the USA (including some for BALLANTINEBOOKS and DAW BOOKS). But the greatest body of his sf ILLUSTRATION has been for the publishers Mondadori in Italy and Heyne in Germany; for considerable periods he has been the only artist working on their sf lines. His work may be the most sophisticatedly surreal in sf, and it is not absurd to compare it with that of Max Ernst (1891-1976), Salvador Dali (1904-1989) or Rene Magritte (1898-1967), all of whom are visibleinfluences. Symbolic and dreamlike, his covers are often more evocative than the stories they illustrate. He received a Special Award at the World SF CONVENTION in Toronto in 1973. A book of his work ed Carlo Fruttero andFranco Lucentini was published in Italy, and the following year in Germany, where it was entitled Visionen des Unwirklichen: Die phantastichen Bilder des Karel Thole ("Visions of the Unreal: The Fantastic Paintings of Karel Thole") (1982).

   PN/JG