CURSE Bill Stoneham
Painting «The Hands Resist Him» ( «Hands oppose him") by American artist Bill Stoneham (Bill Stoneham) or also known as "damn picture". And to be precise, one of hundreds of people walking on the informative spaces of the paintings with the stigma.
Since we are not the yellow press and do not like to speculate crook - all the stories we will deliver their assessment. And so as not to confuse you some hypotheses, conduct not just a brief overview of the myths and legends, and try to find the root of the fear caused by this painting.
Thus, according to official sources, the history of the painting begins in 1972, in fact when it created. Billy claims that it was drawing here with this picture, found in an old attic, which shows he and some mileyshaya girl from a neighboring house. In general, even the blind will determine the obvious differences of the original version and that that happened, the only thing that unites them, so this is a no compositional relationship.
In fact, immediately after its creation, begin fictions and stories - first she visited the various exhibitions, which by its type of stirred up the audience and they fell into a cultural hibernation. Then she wandered from hand to hand, was the owner of the collection "Los Angeles Times," then the actor John Marley, after whose death it seems thrown relatives. And yes, of course, death was only due to the fact that there was this unfortunate leaf in his life, or else, according to the judges of this masterpiece, people do not die, ever.
And if the first path through the thorns can still with grief in half, but believe that in the coming ordeal to believe not only to work, but only under some strong medicine. For the story goes that in the garbage this picture found any married couple, dragged it home and drumming - hung in the nursery. The child began neuroses and hallucinations, the children in the picture according to one version called her to him, on the other fought for the third, apparently, generally called Satan. The upshot is that this far-fetched story was just gorgeous promo action, contributed sales of paintings on eBay, so that the dog was buried in the marketing success and not otherwise. The subsequent history is not so tragicomic and funny - it just bought, and the owner of uncounted suffering from marasmus, podveyannyh fables visionaries.
Although if you think about it, definitely, in this picture there is something. First and foremost it is worth noting the style surreal image - close to a realistic form, but a deliberate distortion of perspective, light and shade, and other "natural" elements in the picture. We can see in the reflection on the door that appears in the sky the new moon, but, judging by the shadows - lights front and quite bright as the sun at midday. At the same time rule out the possibility of any artificial light, such as light source, according to the laws of nature, should also be reflected from the mirror surface, and it is not there. The light is like from both sides, because the shadows on the clothes the doll and the boy dropped in different directions, as if in front of each of them WWTP spotlights. This snag, almost imperceptible, influence our subconscious, making a dissonance between the familiar and seen.
The intrigue lies in the location and appearance of the characters, ie, a boy and a doll. Although the question is, who is more alive than dead. Due to the successful games with the light, the boy's eyes are invisible to us, we can not determine whether its full of apple eyes bright eyes and empty, like standing next to a doll. The facial expression is also very uncertain and not entirely clear. He is on the brink of calm and tension, posture is static, even relaxed, but sometimes slips some anxiety in his eyes. Guards and unusual view of the direct, some puppet legs. Not clear is the purpose for which it stands at that door - he protects us from these evil hands, or he guards them as Cerberus from prying eyes. Who is he - the victim, the hero or guardian - that's the question.
Pictures are often attributed to the effect of "uncanny valley" - a phenomenon in psychology, first discovered scientist Masahiro Mori. Based on his research, every object, about looking or acting like a man, with a minimum of deviation is enmity and aversion observers. There are suggestions that our subconscious mind is notorious these small discrepancies, such as symmetry, unusual for ordinary people, and classifies them into categories of "abnormality", and why there is a protective feeling of disgust and apprehension. This is often used by film footage, from time to time in their films podsovuya killer robots, dolls and other, human-vermin.
