Art News

Exhibition Explores Need for Superhuman and Mortal Heroes in Society

NASHVILLE, TN.- “Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece”, an exhibition exploring the human need for heroes through the arts of one of the oldest and most influential cultures in history, will open in the Frist Center’s Upper-Level Galleries January 29, 2010, and remain on view through April 25, 2010. More than 100 works, including statues, reliefs, vases, bronzes and jewelry made between the sixth and first centuries BCE and drawn from prestigious U.S. and European museums illustrate the lives of Greek heroes including their tasks, adversaries, challenges, failures and private moments. Heroes are sometimes portrayed as superhuman protagonists while at other times as average people who rise above the ordinary. Included are both mythological heroes, among them Herakles, Achilles, Odysseus and Helen, and mortal heroes, including warriors, athletes and rulers. The exhibition comes to the Frist Center from the Walt