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The Maldoror Series which followed, painted between 1976 and 1978, are his strangest and darkest works. Full of cruel, repulsive and macabre
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MALDOROR SERIES: THE HERMAPHRODITE (1976)
(Maldoror-serie: De hermafrodiet)
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images, they break the floodgates of reason and spill over onto the canvas from the artist’s darkest unconscious. With the exception of the interesting Hermaphrodite (1976), these paintings display an ugliness otherwise unfound in Johfra’s oeuvre. Like his depiction of Kali, (1976) most of these images are brazen, garrish and graphic. He seems more inspired by American comic book art than his usual Baroque sources.
From this time forward, Johfra’s Hermetic works turn away from the light and focus on the darkness. Whatever transcendental symbols he used before - transparent to a higher light - he now seems obsessed by shadow, the occult, and the darkness that dwells below.
For example, in 1979, he completed a series of Witches’ Portraits (Heksenportretje). Where woman before offered him the allure of her arching nude figure, now it is her hooded face that fascinated him, with a dark expression equally licentious and dangerous.
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ARACHNE
(1979)
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MAGDALENE
(1979)
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THE CRY
(1979)
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