Wednesday, February 3, 2010

AMASIS/ Classical Greek Pottery Expressionistically Reinterpreted in Modern Art




                                         Amasis
                                        1984
                                        wax medium on paper
                                        by Eric Whollem
                                        Collection of the artist.
                                        14 " x 11"
                                           Copyright by the artist.

BACCHANTES

Amasis is the name of a famous ancient Greek pottery painter.
I did this work in homage to his art.

The Bacchantes were part of the old matriarchal order that
worshipped Dionysius as the Sea Bull, the oceanic womb.
The womb was noted to have horns like a bull, when one
examines the fallopian tubes. Bull head sculptures have been
found in archaic goddess temples in Turkey. This form of
worship apparently is very ancient.

One can notice the telltale signs of 20th century modernism in
this work, of course. The heads and faces of the figures are
a loose interpretation of Attic design, one of the more
"primitive" phases of  Greek antiquity, where linear pottery
design still was rooted in traditional patterns associated with
weaving and folk embroidery.

*
Greek pottery, abstract art, Amasis, Attic art, mixed media painting, Bacchantes, the Sea Bull, Dionysius. Figurative abstraction.

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