Discobulus Greek Mythology Monument Painting on Primary Colors Painting

This large, simple, pop art painting features the discobolus statue in red, against a bisected yellow and blue background. The discobolus features in an important scene in the film adaptation of E.M. Forster's Maurice, maybe my favorite book in the world. The scene takes place in the British Museum, and this glorious classical artwork is shown, magnificently, in the center of the room as the two main characters acknowledge and then act upon their attraction to one another. The classical Greek statue, the Diskobulus (or disc thrower) of Myron, and my painting, features a nude young man preparing to launch a disc. Of the original work, Kenneth Clark writes, "Myron has created the enduring pattern of athletic energy. He has taken a moment of action so transitory that students of athletics still debate if it is feasible, and he has given it the completeness of a cameo. To a modern eye, it may seem that Myron's desire for perfection has made him suppress too rigorously the sense of strain in the individual muscles" The statue in the British Museum is a Roman copy of the Greek original and so my homage to the sculpture, to the film, and to Forster's book, joins a long line of artworks centered on this original sculpture or perhaps on the athleticism of this long gone young man. I painted this composition on a cradled board with a narrow pale birch wood frame so that it would be ready to hang (besides for mounting hardware) without framing. As the board is attached to the frame, it cannot be taken out and reframed.