Pagan Saints And Christian Dreamers In The Surreal Academism Of Anthony Ackrill

"I'm not one to intellectualize about my pictures and try to explain what I do. If I were to think about it too much and try to nail down where it is that my pictures come from, or why, it would destroy the mystery that is in it for me" (newamericanpaintings.com), that's how the American artist Anthony Ackrill speaks about his works. As viewers, we can speculate on the content of his pictures without being afraid to ruin the mystery. Let's do this!

Fig. 1. Ackrill with a crocodile (themarshallgallery.com)

Fig. 2. Relinquish (blogspot.com)

Fig. 3. Seduction of Noah (grenninggallery.com)

Fig. 4. Kindred (conchigliadivenere.files.wordpress.com)

Fig. 5. July (conchigliadivenere.files.wordpress.com)

Fig. 6. Mermaid (igavelauctions.com)

Better Late Than Never

Anthony Ackrill was born in Alaska in 1958 but spent his childhood in Ohio and Florida. He studied graphic design and founded an advertising agency. Later, these studies were followed by self-training in drawing and painting. Like Catherine Abel, the heroine of one of our previous articles, Ackrill received professional training after his initial success as a self-taught painter. He enrolled in the Florence Academy of Art in 1995, at the age of 37.

Anatomy Instructor

This relatively late start didn't affect his artistic personality and skill. Unlike Abel, who doesn't like formal training, as she confesses, Ackrill spent five years at the Academy. Curiously, already after one year of studies, he became an anatomy instructor and occupied this position for four years until he graduated. As Ackrill says in his artist statement, "In this system, the pupil studies with a master until the student has become a master as well. Often the pupil then becomes a teacher, passing on a continuous body of knowledge, generation after generation" (themarshallgallery.com).

Fig. 7. Dusk (grenninggallery.com)

Fig. 8. Two mermaids (conchigliadivenere.files.wordpress.com)

Fig. 9. Newborn (conchigliadivenere.files.wordpress.com)

Fig. 10. Transformation (grenninggallery.com)

Anatomy of Melancholy

Four years of studying and teaching anatomy affected Ackrill paintings a lot. The artist focuses mainly on the human body, though this fascination is not that in the works of Roberto Ferri, where the muscles are emphasized like in Michelangelo's oeuvres. At the same time, Ackrill's nudes look more human than these of the most famous academist Bouguereau. The academism of the artist manifests itself in the varieties of poses that allow depicting different angles and curves of the body. The dramatic pose often provides the content of the image and becomes a mourning male or female, who originate from Greek or Roman legends.

Fig. 11. blogspot.com

Fig. 12. Dusk at Crying Rock (grenninggallery.com)

In Premium, you can check out an extended version of the article with more on Ackrill's religious paintings and the similarities to Dali and Andrea Mantegna's work, the influence of the old masters on him, and more enticing examples of his paintings..

Click HERE for the Renaissance inferno of the Italian master Roberto Ferri

Sources: grenninggallery.com; newamericanpaintings.com; themarshallgallery.com

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