Woman and the Sea

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Will Barnet

1973

American, 1911-2012
Lithograph, edition of 75
Loan from the Estate of Will Barnet, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery FL.2017.8.21

As psychological as open-narrative works come, Woman and the Sea provides a bare minimum of visual information from which its artist Barnet allow our minds to run free. The simplicity of the composition, a masterwork of silhouetted forms, leaves the backstory completely up to each and every viewer’s imagination. Who is this woman, whose face we will never see? Are we present in this space, watching from behind? Or is this a closed scene, in which we do not take part? Set beachside in an indeterminate season, does the figure’s attire suggest anything about the era in which this is taking place? And what experiences led up to this moment of introspection, as she stares in solitude out at the sea?

Forbidden Fruit

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Robert Remsen Vickrey

1995

American, 1926-2011
Egg tempera on panel
Gift of Scott, Nicole, and Carri Vickrey, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.19.1

A perfect example of the whimsy, mystery, and “Magic Realist” style of Vickrey, Forbidden Fruit presents the viewer with a painting that is at once playful and realistically-rendered yet strangely eerie and almost surreal at the same time. A young girl stands with her back toward the viewer, facing directly toward a painted brick wall. We cannot see her face or exactly where she is looking, but we are privy to the images depicted all over the wall that surrounds her. What connects all the figures on the painted wall? Can you recognize any from art history of the past? What significance does the single yellow balloon hold and why is this child alone on the sidewalk staring at a wall? Recall the name of the painting and consider the multiple possible meanings of “forbidden fruit,” literal and otherwise. Vickrey intrigues us and proposes that we let our imaginations run wild here.

Interior with Round Boxes

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Dewitt Hardy

1973

American, b. 1940
Watercolor on paper
Museum Purchase through a grant from The Ledger and with memorial funds
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 1974.6

Here, Hardy presents us with what we might call a “genre scene.” Genre scenes are works of art that present seemingly mundane moments of everyday life. From the title of the painting to the skewed perspective from which we observe the room, the composition suggests that the female figure seated with her back facing toward us is secondary to the other objects and props in the space. Yes, this is without a doubt an “interior with round boxes,” but is that truly what this painting is about? While the boxes filled with fruit are foregrounded, with one apple set separately on the table along with three spoons, we as attentive viewers must wonder about the barefoot woman on the rocking chair. She sits in a spare space, turned away from us, with her arms crossed over her lap. Her head is shifted over her left shoulder. What is going on here? What is the story behind this moment in time?

Winston Churchill

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Yousuf Karsh

1941

Armenian-Canadian, 1908-2002
Gelatin silver print
Gift of the Estate of David P. Hauseman
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2013.3.1

“You have two minutes,” barked British Prime Minister Winston Churchill “And that’s it, two minutes.”

You can just feel the tension in this room. What can we learn or detect about Churchill from his demeaner? Were you to insert a cartoon “thought bubble” over his head, what would he be thinking to himself but not saying aloud? For that matter, what might he be saying aloud? Can you even begin to dream up the frigid conversation between sitter and photographer? Now’s your chance to set your imagination free, as you step into the shoes of the photographer, Karsh, as he is confronted with the brusque British Prime Minister, photographed here in the midst of the Second World War. What happened just prior to Karsh’s snapping this photograph and what transpired just after?

The Writer

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Josephine Sacabo

Not dated

American
Photogravure
Gift of the artist
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2017.1

Sacabo supplies us wonderfully with the bare minimum of information about the female sitter of this photograph. All we know is that she is a ”writer.” Note the superimposition of the typewriter keys over the image of the hazily rendered central figure.

It is up to you to tell her story.

The Dream

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Will Barnet

1998

American, 1911-2012
Lithograph
Loan from the Estate of Will Barnet, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery

Alfred Hitchcock, anyone? The narrative possibilities here are as broad as they come — truly, the story of this woman or this dream can take so many forms, and all will be correct — although many viewers will find immediate cinematic and literary echoes abounding in this classic Barnet print. Are we inside of this figure’s dreaming mind? Are we having a dream ourselves? Are we outside this window and is she looking back at us? Are we one of the birds reflected in the window? Or might the meaning of “dream” here be something entirely unrelated to sleep?

The Recyclers

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Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso

2009

Oil on linen
Gift of a private collection, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.7

Recalling Italian Baroque master Caravaggio in its manner, The Recyclers depicts four modern figures in the midst of an argument. Given the painting’s title, we have to imagine that Dellosso is poking fun, creating a humorously melodramatic scene around a very mundane, everyday subject matter, now elevated to the scale of an Old Master work.

So what are these four figures arguing about? What are they saying to each other? And who is being accused of what? Note the varying recyclable and compostable goods they carry. These household items are also the painting’s cleverly modernized “traditional” still-life objects. Will they help us tell the backstory and determine who is in the wrong here? This enigmatic tale is yours to decode. Dellosso has put you in charge, leaving the narrative wonderfully open to interpretation.

The Window

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Reynier Llanes

2016

Cuban-American, b. 1985
Watercolor on paper
Gift of the artist, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.13.3

What we cannot see in this painting is just as important as what we do. A man with glassy, almost teary eyes stares off-canvas to the left, presumably out the titular window, the view through which we cannot observe ourselves. Is the man aware of us? Do we sit across from him in this room? Is he alone, immersed in his own thoughts, looking distractedly out the window? Or is he watching something just beyond the window panes — forever unseeable and unknowable to us? What is he feeling? What, if anything, might he be looking at?

Nuestra Senora de las Iguanas

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Graciela Iturbide

1996

Mexican, b. 1942
Photogravure on paper
Museum Purchase through the General Acquisition Fund
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 1996.4

In this photograph by one of Mexico’s most revered photographers, we are presented with a figure wearing a most extraordinary headpiece. A glance at the work’s title will reveal what sits upon her head, but can you come up with a story about this woman, her life, and her striking reptilian “attire”?

Untitled

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John Briggs

1989

American, b. 1948
Oil on board
Museum Purchase through the Kent Harrison Memorial Acquisition Fund
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 1990.94

Briggs offers us no help solving the riddle of this triptych with his title for this set of three paintings intended to be hung side by side as a single work of art. Maybe you can envision the connective narrative tissue between the three pictures? How do the running man at left, the skeleton in the middle (who returns our gaze upon him), and the strange landscape at right relate to each other to tell a complete story? What themes or messages can you draw from this odd trio? Look closely at all the details Briggs presents. If you can spin a convincing tale, you are a master storyteller.

Espiritu Santo (Marilyn)

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Graciela Iturbide

1996

Mexican, b. 1942
Photogravure on paper
Graphicstudio Subscription Purchase through the Kent Harrison Memorial Acquisition Fund
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 1997.8.5a-b

Can you recognize the figure represented in the top half of this photograph? If so, who is she? (Hint: the title of this work will give you a good clue.) Notice also the gestures of the figures in the lower half of the image. What are they doing? What might this signify? In envisioning your story about the figures in this photograph, take into account that it was taken in Mexico in 1996 and that the blond figure hovering in an almost ghostly manner over the seen died in 1962.

Adrian Bury

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Eliot O’Hara

1952

American, 1890-1969
Watercolor on paper
Gift of Mrs. Joan O’Hara, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.28.13

In Elderly Gentleman and Adrian Bury, O’Hara gifts the inquisitive viewer with two paintings of decided psychological depth. There is not much action in these portraits, but that is the point of and the value to be found in them. While one man remains anonymous and the other is named specifically, we as viewers are granted the opportunity to imagine who they are and the psyches of each. How is each depicted? What clues are we offered about how each man is feeling or about what he is thinking? What lives have these men led? And what about us, as it pertains to these paintings: are we present in either scene — that is, is either man aware of us — and what difference would it make if we were? How do these portraits make you feel?

Sean's Pulse

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Robert Remsen Vickrey

c. 1977

American, 1926-2011
Lithograph, edition of 150; AP 2/15
Gift of Scott, Nicole, and Carri Vickrey, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.19.4

We can never get inside of the heads of illustrated figures in art to know definitively what they are thinking or feeling. But many artists, like Robert Vickrey, invite us to try to do so. In this picture of his son Sean, the artist presents the viewer with a seemingly simple rendering of an adolescent taking his pulse. But the very act of taking one’s pulse — of exploring one’s own living state — can be viewed simultaneously as matter-of-fact or deeply existential. That Vickrey chose to depict his son performing this task (as opposed to say reading a book, playing ball, or sitting for a formal portrait) should suggest to us that we should consider the larger story and inner psychological motivations underlying Sean’s taking his pulse. How does Sean feel? What type of young man might he be? How does the way his father has represented him, with beautiful cross-hatching limited to his exposed skin, impact our impression of Sean or his psyche?

Satiric Dancer, Magda Förster

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André Kertész

negative date 192 | print date 1980

Hungarian, 1894-1985
Gelatin silver print
Art Resource Trust Purchase
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2011.5

André Kertész is known for his photographs of contorted bodies, most notably for his images of nudes distorted by funhouse mirrors. Here, the artist shows good humor in juxtaposing his clothed model, twisted in a contrivedly uncomfortable pose with a twisting nude torso at far left. We are offered the model’s name and profession via the photograph’s title, but the rest of this satiric dancer’s story and that of the photographer’s experience taking this photograph are left wholly up to you to create.

Self-Portrait

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Jenny Bagert

2007

American, b. 1972
Silver gelatin print
Gift of Robert and Malena Puterbaugh
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2018.1

Although a self-portrait of the artist, this photograph almost demands a narrative. The image supplies the viewer with an overabundance of signs and signifiers, clues that enable each of us to imagine our own tales about who this woman is (although the artist poses for the work, in your story you get to determine if your “character” is Bagert or not). Why does she sit on the wooden floor? What can we see as we look out into the world just beyond the sun-drenched space of the room? How does the figure’s mirror reflection in juxtaposition to her silhouetted form in the foreground impact our reading of her or the story we want to tell about her?

The Sun is Free

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Chad Meissner

2002

American
Split-tone selenium gelatin silver print
Museum Purchase through the General Acquisition Fund
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2002.7.3

An eerie photograph with a cryptic title, The Sun is Free uses selective focus to disorient the viewer. With blurred edges and a sharply-focused foreground, the image presents a figure with a head-covering, set against a backdrop of bare tree limbs. Where is this scene taking place? What is the figure wearing? Why does he or she hold both hands to the sides of his or her face? What could be going on?

Journey

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William Entrekin

2015

American, b. 1946
Egg tempera on panel
Gift of the artist, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.8.1

Entrekin gives us so much — and yet so little — visual information from which to formulate a narrative here. Take some time to study the male figure positioned just off center in the composition. What is notable about him physically? What is he wearing? What is he holding? Where is he? What might he be looking at just off canvas at the left? Per the title of the painting, what is his “journey”? Has he taken it yet or is he about to embark upon it? Or is Entrekin taking us, as viewers, on a journey toward creating our own imagined narratives instead?

Portrait of the Artist Edward Avedesian

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Alice Neel

1981

American, 1900-1984
Lithograph
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2004.6
Gift of Norma Canelas and William D. Roth

With an inimitable and immediately recognizable portrait style, Neel stands out as one of the leading lights of American figure painting in the 20th century. Often appearing unfinished — although they are not — a viewer of any Neel portrait gains a sense of the immediacy of the relationship between the artist, her sitters, and her process. It seems always as if Neel has just stepped away for a moment from her work, leaving her subjects in a state of flux that only adds to their timelessness. Neel’s portraits are suffused with emotional and psychological dimension and thus offer a greater sense of truthfulness about the figures within them than they might if they were rendered in a more purely naturalistic manner.

All Neel offers us here is the name of her sitter and his occupation. She leaves the rest to our imagination. Who is this artist Edward Avedesian, who gazes back at us so forthrightly? What is he thinking about? How does he feel about our looking at him — or about our studying him as the subject for a work of art? What assumptions do we make about Edward based purely on Neel’s visualization of him alone?

Untitled

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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.

Bird at Window

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Robert Remsen Vickrey

1975

American, 1926-2011
Egg tempera on panel
Gift of the Vickrey Estate, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2018.16.8

In this emotionally expressive painting, we see a girl seated, leaning back in a chair, looking out the window behind her and observing a bird, who flutters on just the other side of the glass. The limited palette of blue and yellow tones in the work convey a solemn, almost sullen air, echoed in the expression on the girl’s face, while the randomly floating yellow balloons encourage a surrealistic and dreamy read on the scene as a whole. Seen through your unique lens, what story do you think Vickrey is trying to tell here?