INSPIRATIONS THEMES
“The work must speak for itself”
Raphy considered it indecent, even disrespectful, to the viewer's intelligence if he were to accompany his creations with a narrative that would present or justify his approach or each of his works.
Raphy's painting style and the absence of any instructions give everyone the freedom to discover shapes, objects, and characters emerging from the artist's subconscious. Suddenly, with a new light, a new angle of view, or a new perspective, previously unknown motifs appear to us without us having previously noticed them.
However, to ensure the viewer doesn't lose any clues, Raphy adds titles to his paintings.
They include musical references, songs, saints, biblical quotes, the stages of the creation of the world, the sun, the moon, comets and stars, the wind, the sea, storms, legends, characters, churches, poetic titles, memories, a bit of Armenia, and many birds.
It's up to the viewer to delve into the work to delve deeper into the subject, the story, the references, and the artist's hidden intentions.
« True painting doesn't need nonsense » said Michel Boutin.
However, to nonetheless shed light on his creative process, we have gathered together—and published here for the first time—the few reflections, private thoughts, and quotes he left behind on his themes of inspiration.
Here you'll find his personal thoughts on the origins of the creation of the universe and the emergence of life through the prism of science*, leading him to reflect—like many other scientists before him—on faith in the presence and existence of a creator.
*Alongside his artistic career, Raphy previously studied chemistry and pursued a distinguished career as a chemical engineer and laboratory manager at the Chimex (Novéal) factory, owned by the L'Oréal group. See Biography. He designed chemical processes that enabled the industrial-scale production of products, and as such, had a thorough understanding and practical experience of chemical reactions between molecules, substances, and materials. He was also a keen reader of scientific journals and literature on astronomy.
NB: The writing of the texts around the thoughts and quotes; the organization, the choice of illustrations, the sequence and the perspective around the themes and were carried out after the death of the artist.
"My painting is above all a hymn to nature.
Nature is of course the entire universe: light, matter, life.»
Music and Rhythm
Music is the main source of Raphy's inspiration. It is omnipresent and inseparable from his painting. He has always painted accompanied by music, and he himself admitted: « Music and legends have been sources of considerable inspiration ».
Many of his paintings pay homage to composers or musicians: Wagner, Beethoven, Sibelius, Schubert, Mahler, Tschaikowsky, Liszt, Messiaen; or refer to characters: Kundry, Parsifal, The Beautiful Miller, Scherzo, Saint Anthony of Padua, etc.
For Raphy, the rhythm of a painting is a fundamental concept:
« it gives it its style and character ».
Creation of the world
Raphy questions and illustrates the creation of the universe and then marvels at the creation of life through several series of paintings.
Que la lumière soit ! 1 & 2
Création du monde
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La lumière
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Les particules
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Matière, dentelle merveilleuse
« Light and matter are in balance.
Light, like matter, reproduces from galaxy to galaxy.
The reproduction of living matter could not take place if the principle did not already exist in the universe. Nature imitates Nature.
LIFE IS MATTER THAT BECOMES CONSCIOUS OF ITSELF»
The sun, the moon, the stars and comets
Raphy continues his exploration of space, describing the birth of stars, depicting Alpha Centauri, Vega, comets, our sun and talking to the moon before creating a balloon and then a space sailboat to explore the universe.
The Moon, stars, planets, the universe and the creation of the world
Raphy explores the universe through many canvases and to depict the appearance of life around the theme of the Moon.
"We're made of the same stuff as the sun and the stars
Each living being carries within itself the secret of the Universe.
Matter is the most extraordinary thing there is; is it not the support of life?
Remember that you are dust, yes, ... but what dust!!»
Soleil bleu 1, 2 & 3
Lune et contrelune 1, 2 & 3
La Lune m'a dit un jour... 1, 2 & 3
"Life is the daughter of gravitation.
The Inner Form of all life is the spiral (“form” and “effect” of gravitation)
Gravitation is a headlong rush; the same is true of life
Life may have appeared on the earth by the effect of the differences in gravity due to the rotation of the Moon around the earth (tides etc...)
These variations of gravity imprinted on terrestrial matter the notion of RHYTHM “
Life would not exist without rhythm“ (Anton Dvorak).
Gravity is attraction. Love is attraction.
Life is the poetry of Love. Love is the poetry of Life.
The Moon, mother of love, rhythms fertilization and life »
Ballon spatial & Voilier spatial II
"Nature imitates Nature. Matter is formed, destroyed and regenerated.
Life can only obey these fundamental principles.
The future of man is the conquest of the universe.
The man will fly away towards the stars; he is impelled to it by the logic of Evolution.
His "will" is dictated by the great law of the universe: "FORWARD" »
Faith, resurrection, paradise
Raphy's paintings evoke the mystery of faith, miracles, healing, resurrection.
"God exists in potential within each of us.
Above all, we must not look for it elsewhere, neither on the surface of the earth, nor at the bottom of the galaxies.
To find it, one must “realize” it in oneself, in one's own substance;
then, the extraordinary appears, the miracle happens. »
Nature, life
Raphy focuses on nature, primarily birds. But the theme of nature also extends to the sea, the tide, the wind, the storm, and the forest.
The birds
When we observe a large number of paintings by Raphy, we realize that, whatever the subject,
birds appear there very often; they are quite the only figurative elements and
the only animal species (with fishes) represented.
The sea, the ships
The wind, the storm
The spirits, the legends
Armenia
Armenia is subject to some painting as well as genocide. There are also inscriptions written in Armenian characters on many works.
The memories, the trip
The escape into the elsewhere, the past, the return to oneself. The theme of the search for the past is also found in a series of paintings entitled “Souvenirs”.
"Many paintings are “memories“: engraving the past on the present.
In Art more than in anything else, the RISK is to be taken:
Work all his life to somehow succeed in communicating his message, or fall into complete oblivion.
Only TIME will sort it out.
A hundred or two hundred years have passed so quickly!
We will wait...! (to see) »
"To mortal anguish, to dark despair, I have opposed Art.
AI 'infinite distress, to morbid misery, Art,
the art that gives birth in the depths of the soul to the light that consoles,
star that smiles and restores hope and heals. »