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.

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