George Tooker’s Altarpiece of Protest

Renowned American protest painter George Tooker’s sacramental art opens new perspectives on the relation of the sacramental economy to modern cultural critique. Differing from extant scholarship and taking into account preparatory drawings, this article claims that George Tooker’s The Seven Sacraments altarpiece is best understood in continuity with the rest of the artist’s protest painting. This interpretation does not diminish the religious or conciliatory significance of Tooker’s masterwork but rather draws out its unique voice as a way of protesting the alone-while-together structures of American society. As western societies confront epidemics of loneliness amidst hyper-connectivity, Tooker suggests generative horizons by which sacramental theology might contribute to that conversation—not in posing a simple fix against existential loneliness, but showing forth sacraments as interconnected, graced practices which first and foremost acknowledge loneliness while at the same time denying it the power to be the final word.