The World Behind A Glass Door: The Story Of A Creepy Painting

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Video: The World Behind A Glass Door: The Story Of A Creepy Painting

Video: The World Behind A Glass Door: The Story Of A Creepy Painting
Video: Munch's Silent Scream 2024, March
The World Behind A Glass Door: The Story Of A Creepy Painting
The World Behind A Glass Door: The Story Of A Creepy Painting
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The World Behind a Glass Door: The Story of a Creepy Painting - Painting
The World Behind a Glass Door: The Story of a Creepy Painting - Painting

There are items that could boast a history much longer than the history of another state. For example, the ring of the god Horus, the cameo of Tiberius, some paintings by Titian or Bryullov have maintained their mystical reputation for many centuries. But there is a picture whose fateful fate unfolds before our eyes, in our time.

Revived mysticism

American artist Bill Stohan was not particularly popular. In the 1970s, his creations, although considered interesting, sold poorly. Sometimes the gallery owners in Chicago took a couple of canvases from the artist for free - to hang on an empty wall. Once one of the familiar art critics advised: “You should at least let the mystics go. She's in vogue now."

And Bill remembered that he had recently found an album of old photographs in the attic of his house. In one of them, he, a five-year-old boy, stood with his even tinier cousin at the glass door that opened into the garden. And what? The composition as a whole was quite suitable for the picture. It will only be necessary to "admit the mystics."

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By working hard, Bill created … something. Broke the perspective a little, made the image too flat in places. The boy and the girl in the picture took on a somewhat grotesque, if not frightening look: the boy's head took on distorted outlines, the eyes of the children became detached and frightening, as if they were seeing something that escaped the eyes of ordinary people.

As in the old photograph, the children are standing near the glass door, but the picture is at night - the moon is visible through the door. The door is tightly closed, and against the background of the night sky, someone's hands stand out as a bright spot, trying to open the door and let Something in from the garden into the room. However, the children are not agitated, not scared. Their postures are relaxed. As if the dark atmosphere of a mystical night is their habitual environment.

"Hands resist him" - the artist called the picture. What does that even mean? "Well, this is some kind of evil that everyone resists," Bill explained to two fellow art critics. They just sighed: "Such a concept is unlikely to pass." And right there, without departing from the picture, they came up with another version: “This depicts the process of growing up children: they will have to go to an adult, unfamiliar and frightening world, where time drags them with tenacious hands, but the children do not want this. Children want to stay in childhood."

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Stohan copied these art history wisdom on a piece of paper and took the picture to one of the galleries in Chicago. Oddly enough, she was accepted. And even hung in a prominent place. Only here's the problem: both art critics who gave the conceptual review died very quickly. "What can I say? - the artist sighed, talking with the owner of the gallery. "They moved to another world - behind glass doors." The Los Angeles Times journalist, hearing these words, quickly scribbled an article about the mystical picture. The article was published. And the people reached out to the gallery - to have a look.

But here's the bad luck: one of the owners of the newspaper died suddenly. True, he was already over 70, but all the same the next morning the newspapers wrote about "a fatal picture, sucking vitality."

The picture is dangerous to health

The painting became popular and even went through a couple of auctions. In 1984, the fashionable canvas was acquired by actor John Marley, known for his films "Love Story" and "The Godfather". However, in May 1984, he underwent heart surgery - and unsuccessfully, with a fatal outcome. When dividing the inheritance of a famous actor, the picture disappeared somewhere.

It surfaced ten years later, already in the 1990s, - ordinary people, not particularly versed in art, found it … in a landfill. The painting depicted children, and the new owners, without hesitation, hung the canvas in the nursery, over the daughter's bed.

Since then, the girl began to cry at night, sleep badly. She had nightmares. And once she could not stand it and ran to her parents in the bedroom, explaining in a breaking voice that the children from the picture go straight to her bed. The girl, of course, was reassured. But history began to repeat itself with options: either the ghostly children disappeared from the canvas, then they swore, then they went out their glass door and from there they called the girl to them. The worried father of the family installed a video camera in his daughter's bedroom, but she did not record anything. However, the girl did not calm down. So I had to get rid of the terrible picture.

By that time, the beginning of the 21st century, the century of high technologies, was already expected in the yard, and it was decided to sell the frightening picture at one of the online auctions - on the famous eBay. The fateful history of the canvas was described in the brightest colors and posted on the Web. This made a splash. The page of the picture has been visited more than 30 thousand times. The canvas was immediately recognized as an urban legend in Chicago.

But then something truly stunning began: site visitors bombarded the administration with complaints, they say, after viewing the picture, they felt sick, especially sensitive fainted, relatives called doctors for them. I had to take action. The administration posted a warning: "Viewing this picture is hazardous to your health!" After such a warning, people threw a shaft, the price of the canvas increased from 199 dollars to 1,025. It was for this amount that Kim Smith bought it, who was just looking for something particularly impressive, but not too expensive for his newly renovated gallery in a small town near Chicago.

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The Internet people, preoccupied with the purchase, began to send warning letters to Smith - the picture sucks vitality! The gallery owner just grinned: "Come, take a look with your own eyes, and not on the Internet!" And the people poured into his ordinary gallery, as if it were the Louvre.

True, many visitors feel dizzy in front of the picture. Psychologists have put forward a simple version: the picture does not suck strength, but simply scares. Because it was written in violation of all spatial, formative and perspective laws. Therefore, it acts on the psyche so depressingly. Lability of perception affects: the human brain is accustomed to images of certain proportions, their violation causes negative emotions and unaccountable fear.

Magic to life

True, there were also stubborn citizens who advised Smith to burn the canvas as soon as possible, because Evil had settled in it. Famous exorcists Lorraine and Ed Robens Warren said that the children depicted in the picture were possessed by the ghosts of the brother and sister of Satillo, Tom and Laura, who were once brutally murdered in Chicago. The killer dealt with them right in their house on the hill, and it all happened like in the legendary house in Amitville. And everyone knows about this house and its unfortunate victims - the cult film "The Horror of Amitville" was shot about it.

Well, the Warrens were just consultants for the film and themselves tried to expel evil spirits from the bloody house in Amitville. So now they offered the gallery owner Smith to expel the devil from the canvas of the artist Bill Stohan. However, the prudent Smith disagreed. The mystical, ominous glory of the picture attracted so many visitors to his gallery that after a couple of years he became a very wealthy man.

In a word, mysticism - to life! It turned out to be a profitable business. Artist Bill Stohan has become a celebrity. The owner of the gallery is rich. And the Warren Exorcists have once again demonstrated their ardent and courageous desire to fight the dark forces. The battle, however, did not work out, but what a glory! Only now an ambulance is on duty at the gallery gates, often taking away nervous visitors …

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