The Temptation of St. Antony

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The Temptation of St. Antony

Artist Tim Rollins (American, 1955 - 2017)

Artist K.O.S. (American, founded 1982)

Date1987-1989

DimensionsH: 66 in. (167.7 cm); W: 115 in. (292.1 cm)

MediumTempera, watercolor, acrylic, and pencil on book pages laid on linen.

ClassificationDrawings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, by exchange

Object number

2004.53

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02A, Wolfe

Label Text“Art is most important to us as a means of knowledge of this world. […] It's not just producing objects, but producing a form of critical thinking about the world.” —Tim Rollins As a teacher in a South Bronx middle school in the 1980s, Tim Rollins combined literature and art in his classes, declaring it “unethical to have kids painting when they could not spell the word painting.” Rollins formed a collaborative artists’ group with some of his students—mostly youth of color—who named themselves K.O.S., or Kids of Survival. For this work Rollins and K.O.S. use the pages of Gustave Flaubert’s surreal 1874 novel Temptation of St. Antony as their “canvas.” Exploring their personal responses to the story of a hermit monk tempted by hallucinogenic visitations to abandon his faith, they also responded to the AIDS crisis of the late 1980s—when New York City, like Antony, was tormented by temptation and fear. The AIDS virus, St. Antony’s role as patron saint of disease, and the novel’s musings on the microscopic world come together in the painted forms resembling microorganisms.