Untitled
/Barbara Adrian
1963
American, 1931-2014
Oil on panel
Gift of Mr. Frank Hanson, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2018.1.3
In Adrian’s untitled painting, a female figure lifts one arm toward her chest and holds the other across her body. She looks off canvas into a space unseen by and forever unseeable to the viewer; however, more than focusing on any actual object in that space, she seems to be lost In thought, perhaps observing nothing at all. Who is this woman? What is she thinking about? What do her clothes, her hairstyle. or her dress tell us about her or the era in which this was painted? Picture her backstory and imagine the life she has lived. Look, too, outside the window behind her. The artist hints subtly at where this scene is taking place, one of a few key details in an otherwise spare painting that helps to propel our dreamed-up narratives forward.