ARTIST BIO

Born in Germany in August 1956, Manfred Rapp began drawing at the age of four. At the early age of sixteen he started an apprenticeship as a graphic artist at a West German advertising firm. After completing his apprenticeship, he began a career as a graphic designer and illustrator. He illustrated books as well as a televised children’s program and designed posters for performances by artists Diana Ross, Barry Manilow and Phil Collins.

Rapp made many trips to Paris, Florence, Amsterdam, and elsewhere in Europe frequenting great art museums and studying master artists’ work, thus inspiring a passion for the art of oil painting which eventually led him to enrolling in the Art Academy of Konstanz in West Germany. From 1980 to 1986 he studied under the supervision of the renowned Czechoslovakian art professor, Karel Hodr. Rapp has the distinguished honor of being one of only three students to receive a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from the academy.

Inspired by the great French Impressionists and many years of study, Rapp’s singular style emerged. His unique style combines Impressionism with the glazing techniques of the Old Masters as well as experimentation with oils and acrylics, to render a dramatic effect in a soft continuance of color. The interrelationship between figures and the world around them is a constant inspiration for his still life, landscapes and street scenes.

In June 2003, Manfred Rapp was selected as one of sixteen artists from around the world to participate in a prestigious Artist in Residency program hosted by the Hungarian Multicultural Center in Balantonfured, Hungary. After completing the three week residency, two separate exhibitions of Rapp’s work were held at nationally sponsored events in Hungary. In 2004 another exhibition of his work was held at the Vizivarosi Gallery in Budapest, Hungary to commemorate the close of the 2003 Artists in Residency Program.

Rapp has resided in the U.S. since 1986 and has made New Mexico his home for the past 15 years. He continues to travel throughout the world to draw inspiration for paintings, visiting such diverse locales as Italy, France, Germany, Spain, North Africa, Mexico, and Cuba on a regular basis. Rapp maintained a lifelong mentoring relationship with Professor Hodr from 1986 until the professor’s death in 2002. His paintings are collected extensively by private and corporate collectors worldwide.