Painted in 1966, ‘Atlantis Rising’ is an important example of Jack Whitten’s early fascination with Greece, which inspired some of his most renowned bodies of work. Even before 1969, when Whitten and his Greek-American wife Mary began to spend part of each year on the island of Crete, Whitten had a profound interest in Greek art, philosophy, and above all, mythology. The monumental painting references the legend of Atlantis, as prophesied in Plato’s unfinished trilogy ‘Timaeus,’ ‘Critias’ and ‘Hermocrates’ (c. 360 BC), wherein the hubris of the utopian island of Atlantis leads to its failed invasion of Athens. Atlantis falls out of favor with the gods and descends into the ocean, serving as an allegory of human nature and the gradual corruption of society. Produced against a backdrop of struggle and hostility, from the Civil Rights protests to the Vietnam War, Whitten employed cacophonous colors and aggressive brush strokes to create a remarkable fantasy of the submerged Atlantis rising from the depths of the ocean.