2024
Oil and acrylic on linen
150 x 150 cm

This painting is inspired by the legend of Wolf Messing vs Stalin. Messing was a Polish Jew. He was a mystic and did many correct predictions. When Messing's wife got ill, he tried to get her to the West for better treatment, but Stalin refused. He also had the plan to deport all Jews to a wasteland in the outskirts of the Soviet Union.

According to the legend Messing told him, that he would die AFTER Stalin and that Stalin would die on a Jewish holiday and this happened. Stalin died before he could send through the deportation on a Jewish holiday. Messing would survive Stalin for many years.

For Stalin I chose to paint him as a mix between a lion and himself. As you know, I work after nature, therefore the animalistic shape is coming through.

In this work, I mixed my old impasto style with the Jewish themes, I used to work from, combined with my natural shapes.

All this horror is visible to the little Rabbi, who wants to stay alive and wants to escape from this hell. The various perspectives, show that his head is dizzy of fear.

The details in de background, show the beginning of the Empire of Evil. You see a little statue of Lenin, because he was the one who started the Dictatorship.

On the opposite side of the Lenin sculpture, you see a painting of a smiling devil creature, that tries to eat everyone.

Furthermore, on the wall you see a painting. Here you see one hand with shackles. This shows the Russian people. They are imprisoned by the Dictatorship and not able to escape. The hand is placed on an abstract head of a person of colour. This symbolizes that even though the people are imprisoned they share their misery on various people around them.