“This
is another variation of the punishment complex. Instead of an act of nature (the
delusion of the astrophobiac) punishing the sinner, it is man-made objects that
here threaten the guilty soul with annihilation. A resentful power hurls at him
an astonishing barrage from high buildings, scaffoldings, ceilings, walls, even
from the sky itself. Crushed beneath heavy stones, he thinks to expiate nobly
what he has secretly enjoyed. There is even an element of exhibitionism that
enters here, and he fears death both for itself and because it will deprive him
of the harrowing pleasure of his mental pantomime.
“There
is a certain dream-like quality in my illustration. It is all unreal – the graphic
projection of punishment by a diseased mind. Nothing is fixed, nothing stable.
The world in which he has his being is in conflict and chaotic. Even the very
stars are falling.”
John Vassos
New York City
May 25th, 1931
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