Christian preacher who originally trained as a sign painter, Akoto-addressed as "Almighty" by his friends and acquaintances—once said: "You need to read to understand my art." As the market for sign painting shrank, Akoto turned to what he calls "creativity arts," which appeal to and serve a broad international clientele. Still relying on the interplay of imagery and text, his portraits and paintings use morality and satire to comment on Christianity, world problems, and what the artist deems to be improper or unhealthy behavior. The two works here, for example, humorously depict three fish with cigarettes jutting from their mouths and a dog carrying "Peter's Cigarette Briefcase" in its mouth—a sharp critique of chain smoking that is a recurring theme. The text below the briefcase underscores how "Peter's" pitiful behavior affects others-leaving those he cares for to suffer in his preventable absence. #art #painting

Untitled (Peter's Cigarette Briefcase), circa 2019
Kwame Akoto, a.k.a. Almighty God
Pigment on plywood
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Untitled (Smoking Fish), circa 2019 Kwame Akoto, a.k.a. Almighty God Pigment on plywood #art #painting

Untitled (Smoking Fish), circa 2019
Kwame Akoto, a.k.a. Almighty God
Pigment on plywood
#ArtSky

As recounted in the Gospel of Matthew (2:16-18), Herod the Great, King of Judea, ordered the slaughter of boys under the age of two in and near the town of Bethlehem. Herod's larger aim was to kill the infant Jesus, who had been heralded as King of the Jews. In this painting Navez consigned those acts of violence to the background and filled the foreground with an interwoven cluster of life-size figures, compressed into shallow relief to heighten the viewer's identification with their vulnerability. This scene's "frightening realism" struck critics when the canvas was first exhibited in 1824, in Amsterdam and then in Brussels. #art #painting

The Massacre of the Innocents, 1824
François Joseph Navez
Oil on canvas
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For this portrait there are more than two dozen drawings investigating a variety of poses (Musée Ingres, Montauban). Similar studies do not exist for the likeness of Madame Leblanc's husband. The two paintings-the only pair of portraits Ingres produced—were probably intended to hang facing one another, since the light falls differently in each, but they are unified by the visual harmony of hands, gold chains, and rich textiles that enhance the couple's black clothing. This work, however, was exhibited without its pendant at the Salon of 1834. #art #painting

Madame Jacques-Louis Leblanc (Françoise Poncelle, 1788-1839), 1823
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Oil on canvas
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Still Life: Flask, Glass, and Jug (Fiasque, verre et poterie), ca. 1877 Paul Cézanne Oil on canvas #art #painting

Still Life: Flask, Glass, and Jug (Fiasque, verre et poterie), ca. 1877
Paul Cézanne
Oil on canvas
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Draped in the skin of the Nemean Lion, Hercules (the Roman name of Herakles), raises his club to kill the centaur Nessus, who had abducted his wife, Deianeira. The stormy sky and rocky landscape framing Hercules's rippling body accentuate the intensity of the vengeful act. Bathed in light, the hero and his watching wife triumph over the evil half-man, half-horse creature pinned beneath Hercules's foot. Known for a fluid, painterly style influenced by the art he saw during his time in Venice, Sebastiano Ricci completed commissions across Europe, including a Hercules fresco cycle in the Palazzo Marucelli-Fenzi in Florence in 1706-07. #art #painting

Hercules Killing the Centaur Nessus, circa 1700
Sebastiano Ricci
Oil on canvas
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An expression of Dindga McCannon's love for Black American women, this work was a response to the absence of depictions of women fighting for Black empowerment in the 1960s and 1970s. The figure's crown, formed with recycled miniature flag poles, recalls the Statue of Liberty and questions what symbols of freedom mean to marginalized communities. Her defiant stare and commanding stance establish the figure as a representative of a hard-fought freedom. Using a palette of red, black, and green-colors associated with the Black liberation movement-McCannon asserts a new vision of liberty. #art #painting

Revolutionary Sister, 1971
Dindga McCannon
Mixed-media construction on wood
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Revival Study #1, 1991 Benny Andrews Collage on paper #art #collage

Revival Study #1, 1991
Benny Andrews
Collage on paper
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In the Apocryphal Gospels, an angel appeared before Mary's parents to announce her birth and destiny as the mother of Jesus Christ. Following the angel's instructions, Mary's parents brought her to the temple in Jerusalem, where she would devote herself to God through fasting, prayer, and abstinence. #art #painting

The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, c. 1736
Sebastiano Conca
Oil on canvas
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Sitting on a ledge, a lute player contemplates the passing of time, as indicated by the hourglass and delicate flowers beside him. The motto under the hourglass reads: CITO PEDE LABITUR ETAS, or 'Time flies on swift feet. The motto comments on the details of the landscape where tales of the dangers of passionate love are illustrated. At middle left is Delilah cutting her lover Samson's hair (and source of his strength). At right, Daphne's arms and head sprout branches and leaves as she transforms into a tree. while Apollo grabs her in vain. These stories of love pursued without regard for reason culminate in the small scene at the upper left where the horse-drawn chariot surmounted by the cupid celebrates the triumph of love over reason, time and earthly possession. Often opting for unusual colors, Bacciacca's use of coral pink is striking, especially in concert with the teal blues of the lute player's sleeves and the landscape. The coloring, the spiky tree leaves, the otherworldly landscape, and even the strange asymmetries or the musician's face achieve a mystical tone. #art #painting

Portrait of a Young Lute Player, 1520-25
Francesco Ubertini, called Il Bacchiacca
Oil on poplar wood
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The White Calico Flower is one of a series of flower paintings Georgia O'Keeffe produced between the 1920s and 1950s in which she used the technique of close cropping and sharp focus that she had learned from modernist photography. These magnified botanical images assume an unexpected monumentality and undermine habitual ways of looking. As O'Keeffe remarked, "In the twenties, huge buildings sometimes seemed to be going up overnight in New York... So I thought I'll make [flowers] big like the huge buildings going up. People will be startled, they'll have to look at them-and they did." #art #painting

The White Calico Flower, 1931
Georgia O’Keeffe
Oil on canvas
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A childhood memory of Pittsburgh's steel mills inspired Elsie Driggs to make this painting. Twenty years later, she tried to paint the mill from the inside but was turned away by the factory's management who worried she might be a labor agitator or an industrial spy. She ended up basing the work on drawings she made from a hill above her boarding house. With its plumes of gray smoke and hazy sky, the painting may seem to be a warning about the dangers of industrial pollution, but Driggs had no oppositional agenda. As she took in its abstracted forms, she wrote: "This shouldn't be beautiful. But it is.!' And it was all I had, so I drew it." #art #painting

Pittsburgh, 1927
Elsie Driggs
Oil on canvas
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Noel Rockmore was a regular patron of the cafes and bars of New Orleans' French Quarter from the 1960s through the 90s, and he held court with no less intrigue and charisma than his fellow bohemian, Tennessee Williams. Arriving in “the last frontier of Bohemia" in 1959, Rockmore discovered the place of his dreams, a place that allowed him to both portray the fantasy and decay so central to his personal aesthetic, and to do so by painting what was there, without embellishment. Born in New York City in 1928, he studied briefly at Juilliard. By 1939, painting and art had become his passion. By 16, he was copying Rembrandt at The Met, and by 18, he was studying at the Art Students League. Considered a prodigy in paint, he exhibited widely in New York City between 1948 and 1959 under the name Noel Davis, with shows at both The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. In 1959, Rockmore was offered studio space in New Orleans by artist Paul Ninas. It began a love affair with the city that would last till the end of his life. In 1963, he discovered Preservation Hall and, over the next few years, executed over 350 portraits of Preservation Hall Musicians. #art #painting

Preservation Hall, 1970
Noel Rockmore
Oil on canvas
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Morning on the Seine, near Giverny, 1896 Claude Monet Oil on canvas #art #painting

Morning on the Seine, near Giverny, 1896
Claude Monet
Oil on canvas
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Géricault studied horses extensively throughout his life, and his stay in England in 1820-21 inspired a group of works representing elegant aspects of horsemanship and sport. The identity of this fashionably attired woman, who rides sidesaddle, is subject to speculation. Horse and rider are depicted in friezelike profile, with the calm control she exerts over her mount standing in stark contrast to the portentous sky that distracts neither of them. Géricault here reconceives the traditional French image of a horsewoman, or Amazone, a term derived from ancient texts describing a fabled civilization of warrior women celebrated for their courage in battle. #art #painting

Horsewoman, 1820 or later
Théodore Géricault
Oil on canvas
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Young art students Carolus-Duran and Fantin met while copying masterpieces at the Louvre about 1855. Carolus-Duran celebrated their friendship in two pictures of 1861: this likeness of twenty-five-ycar-old Fantin, and a closely related portrait (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). Fresh and penetrating, the present portrayal reveals the talents that made Carolus-Duran a rising star. Employing striking tonal contrasts and bold brushwork, he demonstrated his allegiance to the daring styles championed by Courber and Maner. However, Carolus-Duran would soon temper his approach; he became a fashionable society portraitist and teacher, counting among his pupils John Singer Sargent. #art #painting

Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), 1861
Carolus-Duran (Charles-Auguste-Emile Durant)
Oil on canvas
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The Book of Esther tells the story of the heroine who risked her life to save her entire community. Esther's husband, the Persian king Ahasuerus, had agreed to the massacre of the Jewish people in his land, an evil plot planned by his chief minister, Haman. He did not know that Esther, the wife whom he had chosen for her beauty, was Jewish. Although Esther was terrified, she twice put herself in peril for the sake of her people. First, she visited the king without being summoned, a crime punishable by execution. Then, she revealed to him her Jewish faith, and—with the help of her cousin Mordechai who had discovered it—Haman's diabolical scheme. Here, Cambiaso pictures the dramatic moment when Esther addresses the king, not knowing whether she will live or die. In fact, Esther's bravery was rewarded, as the king touched her with his scepter and listened to her appeal; he then granted the Jews the right to defend their lives. Haman was hanged on the very gallows he had installed for Mordechai. Each year, the holiday of Purim commemorates the day the Jewish people defeated their persecutors and celebrates Queen Esther, whose courage ensured the survival of her community. #art #painting

Esther and Ahasuerus, circa 1569
Luca Cambiaso
Oil on canvas
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Three Generations, 2024 OSGEMEOS and Daze Acrylic and spray paint on canvas #art #painting

Three Generations, 2024
OSGEMEOS and Daze
Acrylic and spray paint on canvas
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Shinzameand, 2022 James Michalopolous Oil on canvas #art #painting

Shinzameand, 2022
James Michalopolous
Oil on canvas
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Mme Kupka among Verticals, 1910-11 František Kupka Oil on canvas #art #painting

Mme Kupka among Verticals, 1910-11
František Kupka
Oil on canvas
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The House Maid, 1910 William McGregor Paxton Oil on canvas #art #panting

The House Maid, 1910
William McGregor Paxton
Oil on canvas
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Saint Theresa of Avila, ca. 1754-1755 Joseph-Marie Vien Oil on canvas #art #painting

Saint Theresa of Avila, ca. 1754-1755
Joseph-Marie Vien
Oil on canvas
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Deer on the Alert, 1887 Rosa Bonheur Oil on canvas #art #painting

Deer on the Alert, 1887
Rosa Bonheur
Oil on canvas
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This painting, shown at the Salon of 1857, depicts the tenor Louis Gueymard in his most famous part, the title role of Meyerbeer's opera Robert le Diable. The setting is the cavern where Robert plays dice with two servants of the devil while his father, Bertram, an evil genius, looks on. Robert sings about the dangers of lust for gold in the celebrated aria L'or est une chimère (Gold is but an illusion). Courbet rejected the historicizing subjects favored by many of his contemporaries. But here his embrace of the present assumed the guise of a modern theatrical piece set in the Middle Ages. #art #painting

Louis Gueymard (1822-1880) as Robert le Diable, 1857
Gustave Courbet
Oil on canvas
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Second Story Sunlight, 1960 Edward Hopper Oil on canvas #art #painting

Second Story Sunlight, 1960
Edward Hopper
Oil on canvas
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The Moon by Day, 1939 Margaret Hoening French Tempera on canvas mounted on board #art #painting

The Moon by Day, 1939
Margaret Hoening French
Tempera on canvas mounted on board
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The Subway, 1950 George Tooker Tempera on composition board #art #painting

The Subway, 1950
George Tooker
Tempera on composition board
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Day Clean, c. 1945-46 Eldzier Cortor Oil on linen #art #painting

Day Clean, c. 1945-46
Eldzier Cortor
Oil on linen
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Saint Cosmas, identified by manuscripts before him on the table and the illustration of medicinal plants in the background, was an early Christian martyr and physician. During the period of Roman opposition to the Christian faith, he was beheaded by order of Emperor Diocletian, but only after having survived being thrown into the sea, crucified, burned, and stoned. Cosmas and his twin brother Damian were remembered and later canonized by the Catholic Church for having provided free medical services to people in need. #art #painting

A Saint Reading, c. 1650
Lorenzo Lippi
Oil on canvas
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Known as a portraitist, Bingham produced this distinctive genre painting with little precedent in his oeuvre. Based on sketches made in central Missouri, the luminous and tranquil scene romanticizes a way of life along the US frontier that was rapidly disappearing. It also references hybrid identities and cultural entanglements between Europeans and Indigenous Americans. Bingham sent this painting to New York's American Art-Union, an organization that promoted the nation's art through exhibitions and the distribution of popular prints, with the title "French Trader & Half-breed Son." The Art-Union removed the racialized reference in favor of the current, more generic title. #art #painting

Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, 1845
George Caleb Bingham
Oil on canvas
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