Animal images form a parallel field of investigation within his figurative art. Through the animal he tests the same questions as in the human figure: how the body carries character, how the gaze establishes a relation, and how description becomes pictorial sign.

Animal subjects appear across Pristavec’s painting in a remarkably broad range. Some works arise from direct attention to bodily structure and anatomy, others from imaginative construction, while still others bring the animal image close to portraiture, still life or an almost abstract sign. This diversity indicates that animals did not form a single predetermined cycle. Rather, they constitute a parallel field of inquiry in which the artist could test the same questions that occupied him in representations of the human figure: how a face or body carries character, how a gaze establishes psychological contact and how colour transforms description into expression.

In this respect Pristavec’s animal paintings are closely related to his portrait practice. An ape seated on a chair, a horse in an arena or a fish placed within a pictorial field is never presented as a neutral specimen of a species. Each acquires a particular posture, rhythm, tension and emotional temperature. Even when repetition is employed, individual animals do not disappear entirely into ornament; their eyes, bodily direction and position within the group sustain a sense of presence.

The frog at the beginning of the surviving body of work is conceived as a dramatically isolated figure. Its body remains comparatively descriptive, modelled in restrained browns, greens and blues, yet it is already placed within a space that is more psychological than naturalistic. The animal appears at the edge of a dark, undulating environment, as if entering a stage. The animal skull is likewise more than an anatomical study. Its pale bony mass hovers against a blurred ground and assumes the character of a memento mori without the need for supplementary symbols.

These early works show that observation in Pristavec’s painting is never wholly separate from interpretation. Even when form remains recognisable and volumetric, the artist isolates, enlarges or places it within a chromatic environment that changes its meaning. Natural form becomes the basis of a pictorial situation.

The eye assumes an exceptional role throughout the animal corpus. In the apes it is often directed towards the viewer or slightly to one side, producing a sense of responsiveness and interior life. In the fish it is even more prominent: because a lateral eye remains visible almost regardless of the direction of the body, Pristavec can enlarge, outline or illuminate it chromatically. The result is a curious paradox. A creature commonly regarded by humans as mute and remote becomes an active bearer of vision.

This gaze is not necessarily human and should not be reduced to simple emotional labels. The artist does not illustrate sadness, happiness or fear in an unequivocal way. Instead, he establishes a tension between bodily posture, the direction of the eyes and the pictorial space. An ape may appear guarded, suspicious, weary or playful, yet its expression remains open.

The group of ape paintings is the most explicitly portrait-like section of the surviving body of work. The artist presents individual animals in varied poses: seated, crouched, leaning, with hands on knees, head resting in the palms, or in the relationship between an adult and a young animal. Differences of proportion, gesture, chromatic accent and facial expression individualise the bodies. Although the identities of the models and the circumstances of production are not yet documented, the paintings function as a sequence of character studies.

Pristavec is not concerned with zoological classification. Fur may be constructed from blue, violet, orange or green strokes, and the face may approach a mask. Such freedom does not lessen bodily conviction, because rhythm takes the place of literal description. Long arms, heavy hands and folded legs organise the composition; the body is at once the bearer of character and the architecture of the painting.

The animal corpus is therefore an important link between early observation, portraiture, still life and Mythology. For Pristavec, the animal is not decoration but a subject that retains its own physical presence while opening towards symbol and transformation.