OBJECT FILE
The Hands Resist Him
FOLLOWPerception Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
THE OBJECT
Oil on canvas, 61 × 91 cm, painted by Bill Stoneham in 1972 from a photograph of himself aged five, at a Chicago apartment. Shown at the Feingarten Gallery in Beverly Hills, where the actor John Marley bought it. After Marley's death (1984) the chain is unrecorded until an elderly Californian couple found it at the site of an old brewery. They listed it on eBay in February 2000 with an account of the figures moving at night; it sold for $1,025 after 30 bids to Kim Smith of the Perception Gallery, Grand Rapids.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
The eBay sellers said the doll figure held a gun and the boy climbed out of the frame at night. Stoneham has said the 'gun' is a dry-cell battery and wires, and that the painting shows a boundary between waking life and dream. The artist has since painted sequels.
WHERE IT IS NOW
Private collection — kept by Perception Gallery. Perception Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI, United States.
PROVENANCE · 3 ENTRIES
TRACE ON THE MAP →1972 – 1974
Bill Stoneham (artist); shown at the Feingarten Gallery
artist's studio; Feingarten Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA, United States
Painted 1972; the Feingarten show was reviewed in the Los Angeles Times. Sale year to Marley given as c. 1974.
Source: Stoneham Studios; The Spokesman-Review, 31 Oct 2002
1974 – 1984
John Marley (actor)
private, Los Angeles, CA, United States
To-date is Marley's death. Where the painting went next is unrecorded until its rediscovery.
Source: Stoneham Studios; The Spokesman-Review, 31 Oct 2002
2000 — CURRENT LOCATION
Kim Smith, Perception Gallery
Perception Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
Source: The Spokesman-Review, 31 Oct 2002 (eBay sale, Feb 2000, $1,025)
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS · 0
REPORT AN EXPERIENCE →Nobody has filed an encounter with this object yet.
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