Golgotha
ca.1910
Marianne von Werefkin takes the traditional crucifixion scene and throws it into a psychedelic fever dream with this 1910 masterpiece. Before creating works like this, she actually gave up painting for a decade to support her partner's career, only to return with a fiery style that helped define German Expressionism. Instead of a somber landscape, we get jagged mountains in bruised purples and fiery reds that seem to scream in agony alongside the elongated figure on the cross. She wasn't interested in painting what the eye sees, but what the soul feels—turning a biblical moment into a raw explosion of color, signed with her initials 'M.W.' in the corner.