Swans, Swine, and Sirens

  • In a video game scene, a robot is partially under water and if forced to decide between drinking water or eating fruit. To choose between the apple or not flooding, one must "rapidly press H for the water" and "G" for fruit.

    Pippin Barr
    Let’s Play: Ancient Greek Punishment
    Written in ActionScript 3 using Flash Builder 4.5 by Adobe Systems and open-source game-making library Flixel; sound effects made with bfxr; Commodore 64 Pixelized font created by Devin Cook.

  • A watercolor with yellow and orange backgrounds, almost like clouds. Throughout the work are many drawings of a sculpture of a body with wings and missing its head, like the famous winged victory sculpture in the Louvre museum.

    Red Grooms
    Winged Victory of Samothrace, 1976
    Watercolor and marker on paper
    13 3/4 × 10 1/4 inches
    Gift of Barbara and Dixon Farley
    Photo: Douglas Sandberg

  • Roberto Matta
    Les naufrageants, from the portfolio “Hom’mere II – L’Eautre,” 1974–75
    Aquatint etching on paper
    25 ¾ x 19 ½ inches
    San Jose Museum of Art. Gift of James Hayward
    Photo: Douglas Sandberg

Tales of monsters, heroes, and gods found in classical Greek mythology have captivated audiences for over three millennia. This small exhibition drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection features works on paper by artists who have used stories from the Odyssey and ancient Greek myths to address challenging issues such as race, culture, and the psychological effects of war, or as a vehicle to explore desire and the universal subconscious. This exhibition includes works by Romare Bearden, Roberto Matta, and Reuben Nakian.

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