(born in Baden near Vienna in 1929)
Schlangengrube (snake pit), c. 1985, oil, oil chalk on photo canvas on wood, 80 x 120 cm, framed

Provenance:
Galerie Ulysses, Vienna
Private Collection, Germany

Compare:
Arnulf Rainer. Verdeckt-Entdeckt, Ulysses Kunsthandelsgesellschaft, Vienna 1987, p. 157–165

Arnulf Rainer
THE SNAKE PIT
This cycle of images grew out of a long, intense preoccupation with (old) natural history, and the associated illustrations, in particular. This was preceded by a period of reading and re-reading various books on modern biology, offering structural and ethological perspectives.
Even in the earliest years of my work as an artist (1951), I was fascinated by organic, vegetable forms. I then created a BOTANIKA cycle in 1983-84: large oil paintings featuring floral structures and cryptogams. After this I was struck by the idea of including reptiles, such as worms and snakes, within this world of vegetation. Their curving lines and their ability to swallow things up and hide them away makes them similar to vegetative structures. However, their potential for aggression leads towards an uncanny, hell-like, threatening dimension: depictions of jungles.
This was all triggered by a minor shock I experienced. In the summer of 1984 I was passing a small, overgrown pond not far from a quarry, when a huge black adder suddenly appeared in front of me, half hidden by the tall grass. It stayed stock-still, even though my next step would have landed on top of it. Of course, I was terrified and froze, of course I ran away. I ran into my studio, where I thought I would be safe. I never saw the black snake outside again: but it is a constant presence in my images. ...
From the aforementioned literature