Depression "Black Period"
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The scourge of depression was lifting and Vincent felt relief as he created these next two paintings in 1959, naming them "Liberation" and "Joy to the World". It was the tentative beginning of a more colorful and happy time in his life and art.
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The lion lies down with the lamb, and the star of peace shines above. Vincent sees light at the end of his long dark tunnel of depression. "Joy to the World" is an image from Christmas 1959.
Interpreting "Joy to the World"
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Mythomorphic monsters make their final appearance in an explosion of abstract color, as Fusionism begins to relent it's obsessive hold on Vincent's waking imagination and dreams.
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Vincent Smarkusz painted the last of the works he called "Dreams and Nightmares" - his most abstract and chaotic Fusionist dreamscapes. These last three nightmare paintings were created just prior to his trip to Jerusalem in late 1959.
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In addition to his Figurative Expressionist period print "The Funeral" created in 1950, there is evidence that Smarkusz created other lithographic prints several years later, during his "Black Period" Fusionism. The image above is believed to be of one of those prints.
