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Artist Statement:
BOGOMIL'S UNIVERSE - the Inner
Universe of Otto Rapp
Bogomil's Universe is an
excursion into the realms of
the Inner Universe - a
parallel universe that exists
in the mind, and glimpses
thereof are presented here. I
am increasingly reluctant to
speak of my work as strictly
and exclusively surrealistic.
While Surrealism provided the
initial spark, and some of the
methods of Surrealism are
employed, I do not suppress
the influence of the rational
and selective focus. Thus,
particularly in later works,
there is to be found a
conscious juxtaposition of the
complementary forces of
inspiration and reason.
I do not concern myself with
the elimination of the
rational, the exclusivity of
the irrational and the absurd,
but presentation of the
conscious and subconscious
world as an inseparable whole.
I draw my inspirations from
the layered labyrinth
underground which represents
the other side of life, which
is an inner
imaginative-inspirational
counterpart to the outer
world, expressed with the help
of logic-alogic associations,
analogisations and symbolism.
The paintings in the cyclus
Bogomil's Universe are derived
by creating textural surfaces,
the method of Decalcomania as
pioneered by the Surrealists,
letting color, consistency and
flow of the paint determine
initial ...
Further Information
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Artist Exhibitions:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
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Collections:
Alberta Government Provincial
Art Collections, Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada
The Nickle Arts Museum,
University of Calgary,
Alberta, Canada
Beinart Surreal Art
Collective, Melbourne,
Australia
Mr. and Mrs. Filanti, Medicine
Hat, Alberta, Canada
Mr. and Mrs. Lencucha,
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
Mr. A. Daiken, Lethbridge,
Alberta, Canada
Mr. and Mrs. Kajari,
Innisfail, Alberta, ...
Further Information
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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TALES FROM THE CRYPT BY OTTO RAPP
Excerpt from the critique by
J. Brooks Joyner, Editor Visual Arts, The Albertan,
Saturday, May 29th, 1976
The exhibition is an omnipresent reincarnation of surrealist forms, attitudes and content painted what can only be termed as a magic-realist formula. Rapp capitalizes on a curious combination of dream world juxtapositions, sensuous nightmares and archetypes. His work is an apotheosis of the paranoiac-critical activity and unconscious turmoil in visual images that so delighted the surrealists. His works are frightening, covertly symbolic and require in many cases a significant understanding of past iconographic detail in the development of Western Art. One painting, entitled "The Deterioration Of Mind Over Matter" is a frightening picture of a decomposing human scull firmly ensconed on some devilish birdcage in which the raw gore of mans physical being lies lifeless at the base. The parting flesh of the scull is secured by a tromp-loeil safety pin. This is truly an image that could have been utilized in the former issues of “Tales From The Crypt”, in fact it brings to mind in its own scary way the imaginations of Edgar Allan Poe. The poem, “The Conqueror Worm” comes to mind immediately:
But see, amid the mimic rout
A crawling shape intrude!
A blood-red thing that writhes from out
The scenic solitude!
It writhes! - it writhes! - with mortal pangs
The mimes become its food,
And the angels sob at vermin fangs
In human gore imbued.
One painting that seems to summarize Rapp’s attitude is his "Monument To The Unborn War Hero".
A large painting which includes scenes of brutality; tyranny; the soldier in various historical periods; images of Hitler; human sculls; alarming pictures of wolves; warplanes overhead and a very bold nude female figure giving birth to what appears to be a crucified figure of man. It is his visual summary of the consequences of war.
Rapp is an accomplished artist, and like so many European artists who have settled in Canada, he has a strong command of modern surrealist imagery.
(Note: J. Brooks Joyner was also Director of the Nickle Arts Museum at the University of Calgary, and Lecturer at the University of Edmonton. Later became the Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, and is currently the Director of the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska).
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