VISIONARY REVUE

WITCHES SABBATH I (1977)
(Heksensabbat I)

      In March of ‘77 the artist painted Witches’ Sabbath I, a theme that intrigued him enough to reprise it with Witches’ Sabbath II in June of ‘78. Then, in March of ‘79 he completed the huge Adoration of Pan, a triptych measuring two metres high and three metres across.
      A profound alteration in his vision has occured. The upward striving Hermes has given way to the downward pointing Baphomet. The Hermetic works have come to an end; the Pantheist works commenced. What is more, the erotic nude has now been combined with the ‘infinite figure’ painting to express this new Pantheism. Where sexuality was concentrated before on a single nude form, now it has exploded into a swirling mass of human figures.
      These large disturbing works offer a vision of humanity caught in the darkness below. No sacred symbol, no higher light guides them upward, toward heavenly ascendence or self-transcendence. Instead, at the eye of the maelstrom appears the great god

PARIS - SPRING 2003

THE ADORATION OF PAN (1979)
(De aanbidding van Pan)

Pan - his curled horns and cloven hooves, his full breasts and huge phallus bringing together and embodying their longing for orgiastic union. The only light in this world below is the torch that blazes between the devil’s horns. And in the absence of spirit, the only unity to be consummated is in the flesh, as humanity’s sexual striving for universal procreation.
      And yet, the Occult elements must not be mistaken for a form of Devil worship. The Horned God in this work harkens back to older Pagan traditions, where Nature was worshipped through midnight fertility rites. The witches’ sabbath was a celebration of the all-pervading Life-power which flowed through Nature, and manifest itself in the growth of plants, the engendering of animals, and in humanity’s own sexual striving. Johfra’s Pantheist works express, above all, the Life-force that flows through Nature.
      (For an analysis of The Witches’ Portraits, The Witches’ Sabbath and The Adoration of Pan, see the article The Pantheist Johfra.)