During a stop at the local Good Will yesterday I was able to find this beauty by J. A. Haacke on sale for a paltry $2.99. Titled “Rapture of the Saints,” and painted in 1942, it chronicles the pure of heart abandoning a sinful town at the behest of Jesus.
I highly recommend clicking on this and checking out the larger sizes because the devil is definitely in the details here, so to dpeak.
Here is a detail to give you some better idea (pardon my always poor photography):
Okay, so how can we tell this town is sinful? For starters, check out the number on the train- 666- that’s Satan’s train! Then below that, see the woman in a bikini soliciting the couple outside- where another woman is also in a bikini? How risquee! To say nothing of the giant building selling “WHISKEY”.
But as bad as all those, the #1 sign that the world has gone wrong here is that all notions of depth and perspective have gone completely haywire. If you follow the lines of the train, it’s vanishing point would seem to be somewhere inside the building it is passing at that moment. Which would make the size of the Whiskey store behind it somewhere on par with the Taj Mahal (A fact that I believe is confirmed by the inclusion of the actual Taj Mahal to the viewer right of the whiskey hut). Moving forward, if the train were to reach the foreground or the piece I think it would be around 6 stories tall, if compared to other buildings on that level. And remember- this is SATAN’s train. Oh the TERROR!
To say nothing of the Giant Abraham Lincoln tearing through the town.
If this is all too much to bear, I feel for you because the original is that much more somber. But fear not, gentle travelers, for there is a respite if you look to the sky:
But there is one catch: Apparaently only young women are getting saved on this day. Heaven, I suppose, is a total clam bake.
You can find more analysis of this work here along with some midi gospel music.
After exhaustive research into the artist online, I have discovered that he “was born in Markham Ontario, he went to North Dakota and then to Michigan (Port Huron Area). He had a sign painting business at one time and had his body almost compltely covered in tattoo. He was a Mason. Later in life he lived in Texas,” from something his great niece posted in a chat room 8 years ago.
I hope you all enjoy as much as I do.
-JD
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