Out of the Twilight Zone

RANZ JOZEF PONSTINGL teetered on the edge of oblivion for decades. He taught himself to make paintings and drawings that look like covers of science fiction books yet to be written. He spent his time making art, not marketing or promoting it. A Salvador Dalí fan, he created surrealist works when the prevailing fashion was for Pop art and minimalism. After serving in the Air Force during World War II and Korea, he eked out a living through occasional interior design work and the generosity of family. He lived mainly in rural Pennsylvania and California, far from the hub of the 20th-century art world. And once, in the late 1960s, he hauled everything