Deterioration Of Mind Over Matter (1973) Painting by The Mystic Otto Rapp

Digital licensing

This image is available for download with a licence

$32.40
$129.62
$270.28
Max resolution: 410 x 600 px
Download immediately upon purchase
Artists get paid their royalties for each sales

Sold by The Mystic Otto Rapp

  • Original Artwork Painting, Oil
  • Dimensions Height 28in, Width 20in
  • Categories Surrealism
acrylic on canvas 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[...]
acrylic on canvas

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.
Excerpt from the critique by J. Brooks Joyner, Editor Visual Arts, The Albertan, Saturday, May 29th, 1976

Related themes

Fantastic RealismAcrylicPainting

Follow
Born in 1944 in Felixdorf, Lower Austria, I lived and was educated in Vienna, where later I worked as a clerk in the Transport and Insurance Business. After completing service in the Austrian Air Force, I traveled[...]

Born in 1944 in Felixdorf, Lower Austria, I lived and was educated in Vienna, where later I worked as a clerk in the Transport and Insurance Business. After completing service in the Austrian Air Force, I traveled throughout Europe, eventually settling in Stockholm, Sweden.
As a Painter I was initially self taught, studying in the various Galleries and Museums. In Vienna, I was often ‘hanging out’ at the Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste, where I admired the work of the “Wiener Schule des Phantastischen Realismus” represented there by the Professors Ernst Fuchs, Rudolf Hausner and Arik Brauer.
In Stockholm, I found out that I was washing dishes in the very same Restaurant where years earlier another Viennese Artist, Fritz Hundertwasser, the ‘Austrian Gaudi’ as he was later known as, had worked the same job. Encouraged by an art dealer in Gamla Stan, I began to paint more seriously. Busking on the streets of Gamla Stan with a Dutch artist, my very first painting was sold to a passer-by by my artist friend while I stood in the employment office line - this paid for a lavish meal for both of us that day.
Traveling around in 1968, I wound up in Western Canada where eventually I settled in Lethbridge, Alberta, the place I still call home today. It was in Canada where the majority of my mature work was produced (under the sponsorship of a small Lethbridge Gallery).
Working for the Canadian Pacific Railway, I quit in 1977 to attend the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program at the University of Lethbridge, graduating (with great distinction) in 1982.
In Canada, I participated in many exhibitions, and held several Solo Shows, culminating in the pivotal 1994 showing at “The Prairie Art Gallery” in Grande Prairie, Alberta, which earned me the moniker ‘The Mystic’.
Throughout my years in Canada, I had been the subject of many reviews and newspaper articles as well as local television shows in Calgary and Lethbridge while being active as an artist, art instructor, curator, studio technician, art critic and juror.

I returned to Vienna, Austria in 2011 - working in my studio at Kunstquartier Wien

I do not sell my artwork on-line, only personally or via my agent Anni Fuchs

See more from The Mystic Otto Rapp

View all artworks
Drawing | 21x14 in
Not For Sale
Digital Arts
Not For Sale
Oil | 24x33 in
Not For Sale
Drawing | 11x9 in
Not For Sale

Artmajeur

Receive our newsletter for art lovers and collectors