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 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.

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”?

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?

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?

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.

Elderly Gentleman

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Eliot O’Hara

1948

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?

Southernization of an Irishman

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John Briggs

1982

American, b. 1948
Oil and pastel on canvas
Gift of the artist
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 1992.7

John Briggs presents us an oversized postcard, filled with figures and creatures of varying scales set along the narrow shoreline of a South Florida beach, ascertained from the hints the artist provides us in the text that frames the painting. While making the painting no less enigmatic to the viewer, Briggs supplies us with a starting point from which to imagine the storyline. Inspired by Irish writer James Joyce’s novels Ulysses and The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and by Joyce’s literary alter-ego Stephen Dedalus, Briggs uses his own visage for the central “Stephen Dedalus” figure in this “Southernized” retelling of Ulysses. But without Joyce’s text to guide us, it is up to each viewer to piece together the rest of the tale. Briggs has given us so much to work with, as we envision the backstories of each figure and try to determine what everyone is doing. Who are the women entering at left? Who is the man high up in the grass? Whose dog is that following the central figure — whose own sunglasses and walking stick offer us another significant piece of information about him — and is that alligator about to take a very painful bite of that barely-clad woman? And what is that winged form up the sky at top right? Moreover, what does this “Southernization of an Irishman” entail? The narrative possibilities are endless.

Winter Rooftop

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Richard Segalman

1986

American, b. 1934
Oil on canvas
Gift of Anna Ajemian, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.21.3

A timeless scene of youthful companionship, Winter Rooftop shows two young men on a city rooftop. Who they are, what they are doing, and what they are looking at off canvas is left completely to our individual imaginations. We can each imbue the painting and the narratives we envision for the scene with our own experiences. What would it feel like to be on this rooftop in winter? For that matter, how cold is it? What city is this occurring in and what views or landmarks lie just beyond the edges of the painting outside our view? What brought these boys to this roof and where will they head afterwards? Segalman plants the seeds that allow us to tell a larger story about these two adolescents, captured here in only a single moment in a larger narrative of their lives.

Consultation

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Colleen Browning

1985

British-American, d. 2003
Oil on canvas
Gift of the artist
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 1993.30

What type of consultation are we witnessing here? Are we voyeurs on a private conversation? Or are we supposed to be in the room with these two figures? Note the subtle details Browning provides us in this deceptively simple scene. A barely-sipped cup of coffee seemingly pushed aside. A napkin hanging precariously off the edge of the table. As we shift our focus to the figures, we see that he woman at right places her hand gently over the hand of the woman at left, who rests her head on her opposite arm. Although we are able to see one woman’s face completely — so much that we can tell she has closed her eyes almost meditatively — we cannot see any part of the other’s face. What might that unseen face express, were we able to observe it? As you imagine the story underlying this painting, your individual expectation of what this unseen woman may be revealing, saying, or thinking may dictate the path of the narrative you create.

Time and Tide

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Adolph Dehn

1949

American, 1895-1968
Lithograph
Gift of the Dehn Estate, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.29.25

A work that invites close-looking if ever there were one, Time and Tide cries out for visual description. Take a few moments to verbalize the details of the central figure. What can we surmise about her? Why? Where is she? What is she looking at off the scene’s far right, if not merely the water alone? Is she looking at anything or is she simply lost in her own thoughts? What sights and sounds and experiences has this woman seen and heard and felt that led her to this moment frozen in time? The story can be epic or simple but is entirely yours to tell.

The Apprentice

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William Entrekin

2008

American, b. 1946
Watercolor
Gift of the artist, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.8.2

Unseen and unseeable psyches of figures in art present a fruitful plain for viewers’ imaginations. Here, in a work like The Apprentice, for instance, the artist Entrekin has left the narrative purposefully open. A frequent question viewers ask when they look at this painting is:  what is going on here? What’s the story of this young girl sitting not on but beside an empty chair? What significance does the precariously placed shovel beside her hold? And what is she ruminating over — for that matter, what is she feeling — as she returns our gaze? Is she upset about something? Is she simply shy?

Each of us will create a different backstory and set of reactions to this painting. This inclusion of us as the viewers is at the core of engagement with The Apprentice, and so many works of art like it depend on us to complete them, a privilege their artists grant us as the ultimate narrators.