Phenomenon (Hell)

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (Russia).

The triptych with hell, purgatory and paradise was conceived as a canvas with many characters (almost 80). At the top of the pyramidal composition are sharp-angled elongated blue shapes – an unattainable peak. The yellow space beneath it (as if it was scorched ground) is teeming with ugly creatures neighbouring either with white tents or with a funeral scene shot by a photographer. Children walk below – they are accompanied by “the head of professor Dowell”. At the base of the pyramid is a sea of blue space. Tchelitchew populated Hell with people from real life: G. Stein (Sitting Bull), E. Toklas (Knitter), and others, including Peter the Great (a baby with a ball). The author depicted himself with an easel in the left corner, saying, “This is a double self-portrait. I paint myself as a hanged black man”. According to the will of the master, the painting was donated to the Tretyakov Gallery.