Ganymede

Artist Watie White (born 1971)

Date2012

MediumWoodcut

Dimensions36 × 48 in. (91.4 × 121.9 cm)
Framed: 46 × 58 × 3 in.

ClassificationsPrint

Credit LineCourtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

On View

Not on view

Label TextDrawing inspiration from his neighborhood, Watie White records a seemingly tranquil urban farm. Disrupting this peace is a large rooster in the center, flapping through the air, talons outstretched toward a much smaller bird in front of him. Titled Ganymede, a reference to Greek mythology, White recontextualizes an ordinary scene from daily life as a moment of mythic proportions.

According to myth, the young prince Ganymede caught Zeus’s eye with his tremendous beauty. Zeus, in turn, transformed into a large eagle, captured Ganymede, and brought him to Olympus where he would become the cupbearer to the gods and Zeus’s lover.