Visual Artist & Musician
Arnold David Clapman
16 Old Court Rd.
Weinberg House
Pikesville, MD 21208
United States
ph: 410-504-5022
alt: 831-239-9248 cell
arniedcl
This series of "portraits," of the Infernal Hierarchy, was created with soft pastels on 18"X25.5" sheets of Canson paper. Seven were done in 1979 and the final five were completed by 2002 in Scotts Valley California.
The images were inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft short story, "Pickman's Model," the cautionary tale of a 19th century Boston painter who bought an old colonial house in the North End and then made a name for himself by painting portraits from life of the demons living in his basement.
Further inspiration and references came from "The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage" by S.L. MacGregor Mathers, Carl Jung's "Mysterium Coniunctionis" and "Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious" as well as various arcane books on witchcraft, black magic, demonology and Kabbalistic Jewish mysticism writings. the series was also inspired by the book and movie "The Exorcist".
Arnold's friend, the late noted Boston visionary artist Paul Laffoley, observed that these works reflect the influences of both Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon. Laffoley incorporated 4 of the demon portraits into his construct " Pickman's Mephitic Model" which is slated to be the centerpiece of a Laffoley exhibition in the near future at a major gallery in Fall River Massechusets curated by his friend NY artist Miles Huston. The entire series of Clapman's Demon Portraits will be featured in this show seen by the public for the first time.
Paul Laffoley inscribed the following credit and tribute to Arnold which can be seen at the bottom of his painting/sculpture "Pickman's Mephitic Model":
Boston's greatest artist-Ghoul of Satan. Arnold Clapman (1952-) The most brilliant and perceptive visual interpreter of Pickman's paintings which are now kept in the Lovecraft Archive and The John Hay Library at Brown University Providence Rhode Island.
Arnold David Clapman
16 Old Court Rd.
Weinberg House
Pikesville, MD 21208
United States
ph: 410-504-5022
alt: 831-239-9248 cell
arniedcl