Otto Rapp

Otto Rapp

Born in 1944 in Felixdorf, Lower Austria, Otto lived and was educated in Vienna, where later he worked as a clerk in the Transport and Insurance Business. After completing service in the Austrian Air Force, he traveled throughout Europe, eventually settling in Stockholm, Sweden. As a Painter he was initially self taught, studying in the various Galleries and Museums. In Vienna, Otto was often ‘hanging out’ at the Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste, where he admired the work of the Wiener Schule des Phantastischen Realismus represented there by the Professors Ernst Fuchs, Rudolf Hausner and Arik Brauer.
Traveling in 1968, Otto wound up in Western Canada where he eventually settled in Lethbridge, Alberta, the place Otto still calls home today. It was in Canada where the majority of Otto‘s mature work was produced. Working for the Canadian Pacific Railway, he quit in 1977 to attend the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program at the University of Lethbridge, graduating (with great distinction) in 1982.

Otto is a rare and exceptional artist and highly esteemed sibling of The Visionary Tribe. True to the veristic roots of his aesthetic, he is deserving of any and every means of support, patronage and the collection of his works...
Prof. Philip Rubinov Jacobson

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Otto Rapp hat das Bild FAMILY REUNION hochgeladen

graphite drawing on paper - 1980 - 31 x 76 cm

Illustration for a short story by Stephen Boston in "Isis" Magazine Winter 1980 Nr.3. This was a short-lived literary and arts mag published by us renegades of the Meliorist Student Newspaper at the University of Lethbridge.
It's the story of a woman with a mysterious illness. The doctor tells her she'll be fine, but has to expect attacks from time to time. Her family gathers for a reunion in the spring, out of the regular schedule, which normally is in summer. This makes her think that she is about to die before summer, but nobody is telling her.

Otto Rapp hat das Bild FAMILY REUNION hochgeladen

graphite drawing on paper - 1980 - 31 x 76 cm

Illustration for a short story by Stephen Boston in "Isis" Magazine Winter 1980 Nr.3. This was a short-lived literary and arts mag published by us renegades of the Meliorist Student Newspaper at the University of Lethbridge.
It's the story of a woman with a mysterious illness. The doctor tells her she'll be fine, but has to expect attacks from time to time. Her family gathers for a reunion in the spring, out of the regular schedule, which normally is in summer. This makes her think that she is about to die before summer, but nobody is telling her.

Otto Rapp hat das Bild VINDOBONA ALTARPIECE II hochgeladen

The second half of a diptych
graphite drawing on paper, 30 x 22 inches - 76 x 56 cm, 1980

Otto Rapp hat das Bild SHEPHERD OF THE SPHINX hochgeladen

graphite drawing on paper - 1983 - 22x30 inches, 56x76 cm

Otto Rapp hat das Bild MEMENTO MORI hochgeladen

THE SKULL is quite obvious with the title, but consider the sharp teeth - is it the skull of a defeated vampire? THE PORTRAIT is curious too: I first drew it a couple of years ago as a sketch in the guestbook of PIGMALION 2017, called Inward Directed Optic. It was supposed to represent the Inner Universe, a concept that goes back to reading an essay of Alfred Kubin about 'The Other Side', or as I called it, my personal 'Bogomil's Universe'. THE FETUS is the Alpha of Life that starts the cycle, which ends with the skull, the Omega. In between that cycle, you have THE THREE NORNS which I tongue-in-cheek depicted as 3 female tailor mannequins, perhaps a bit of a stretch playing on the myth of spinning the threads of life. And in the background you see ANUBIS, the Egyptian god of death and the afterlife.

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