Robert Vickrey, Forbidden Fruit, 1995, Egg tempera on gesso on masonite, 36" x 48"

Florida Southern College's New Art Museum Collection

Organized by the Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, Florida

The first of many forthcoming exhibitions showcasing the Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College’s latest acquisitions, The Figure in American Art offers but a mere introduction to the Museum’s newest permanent collection works. This inaugural exhibition of the alliance between the Polk Museum and Florida Southern highlights one of the principal collecting initiatives fostered by the partnership: to develop a collecting focus that specifically addresses the “figure” as a subject unto its own in American painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture.

The human form - rendered realistically, abstractly, or even metaphorically - has been the central element that has connected art across time, and, as The Figure in American Art strives to illustrate, the theme presents an endless font for artistic and viewer consideration. Accordingly, this new collecting focus strives to elevate the Museum, making it and Lakeland, a go-to source for American art. This summer, visitors to The Figure in American Art will get a glimpse at a growing collection whose uniqueness celebrates not only the new alliance between the Polk Museum and Florida Southern College, but also the unique strengths of the community-at-large.