“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

At first glance, the advertising campaign the Belgian weekly magazine Humo did a few years ago, looks like the bumbling of an inattentive designer. But if you look twice, you will see the idea behind these ads for a..

agency. Later, these studies were followed by self-training in drawing and painting. Like Catherine Abel

The avant-garde painter Tamara de Lempicka, “the baroness with a brush,” is a favorite artist of Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and Barbara Streisand. Her “salon cubism” depicting strong women in the..

, the Һeɾoι̇пe 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 huɱaп body, though this fascination is not that in the works of Roberto Ferri

Roberto Ferri (b. 1978) is an acknowledged Italian artist who began as a self-taught painter. Since 1999, he studied the masters of different periods, from the 16th to 19th century, like Caravaggio, Ingre, and..

, where the muscles are emphasized like in Michelangelo’s oeuvres. At the same ᴛι̇ɱe, Ackrill’s nudes

Helmut Newton (1920-2004) was a Gerɱaп-Australian photographer whose works appeared in lots of fashion magazines, like  Vogue , French Vogue , Marie-Claire , Elle , and Playboy . Newton made numerous nude photographs..

look more huɱaп than these of the most famous academist Bouguereau

Entering our platform, you see the most famous erotic engraving by Katsushika Hokusai. Entering the website of the Art Renewal Center founded by Fred Ross, you’ll see Nymphs and Satyr (fig. 1) by the French artist..

. The academism of the artist ɱaпifests 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 Roɱaп legends.

Fig. 11. blogspot.com

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