Epigraphs are like little appetizers to the great entrée of a story. They illuminate important aspects of the story, and they get us headed in the right direction.
Art is a lie which makes us realize the truth.—Picasso
Quipped by none other than the famous Picasso, this quote is about how pictures can tell us a lot about the real world. To get a little more sophisticated, art is a "lie" because it shows us something, but it's not real—a painting of a can is just a painting of a can and not a can, right? But even though art isn't really real, it tells us a lot about the real world around us.
Case in point: Asher's Brooklyn Crucifixion I and II: these paintings (a picture of his mom being crucified on a window) tell us something very true—namely, that Rivkeh suffered a good deal because her son and husband were always fighting over her son's art.