The Temptation of Saint Anthony
20 by 16 foot wall. Green with orange Day-Glo tape
Painted by Rabo Karabekian
Purchased by the Mildred Barry Memorial Center for the Arts in Midland City, Ohio: $50,000 (American funds, 1973)
Description of work: “(The picture) shows everything about life which truly matters, with nothing left out. It is a picture of the awareness of every animal. It is the immaterial core of every animal – the ‘I am’ to which all messages are sent. It is all that is alive in any of us – in a mouse, in a deer, in a cocktail waitress. It is unwavering and pure, no matter what preposterous adventure may befall us. A sacred picture of Saint Anthony alone is one vertical, unwavering band of light. If a cockroach were near him, or a cocktail waitress, the picture would show two such bands of light. Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery.” – Rabo Karabekian, 1973
The Trent Wilkie 