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 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?

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.

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.

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?

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?

Peter Grimes

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Will Barnet

1973

American, 1911-2012
Lithograph, edition of 300
Loan from the Estate of Will Barnet, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
FL.2017.8.32

Three sillhouetted figures stare off at the sea. Two women stand side by side, while another figure is set alone at the left. Based on a narrative poem by George Crabbe and a subsequent opera by Benjamin Britten, Barnet’s Peter Grimes cannot presume its viewer’s knowledge of any version of that story. Indeed, very few will see its title and have a familiar narrative to pair with it — and Barnet would have known this. While we invite you to seek out the full narrative and to imagine which moment in the original poem this might illustrate, for now, envision your own complete story, as the artist would have anticipated. Perhaps your narrative for this picture will bear some similarities (or none at all) with the one that inspired it. That’s the beauty of an open-ended work of art like this.

Untitled

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Barbara Adrian

Not dated

American, 1931-2014
Oil on panel
Gift of Mr. Frank Hanson, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2018.1.2

Who is this barefoot woman on a swing? And what is going on inside of her mind? At what does she peer just off-canvas? Inviting us almost to interrupt and interact with the elongated figure at the painting’s center, Adrian creates an engaging vertical composition, whose orientation positions the viewer in a one-to-one human relation to the swinging woman. With the shape of the canvas and the figure’s occupation of nearly the whole picture plane, it is almost like we are looking at ourselves in a mirror. Is this woman us? Is she aware of us? Look at her facial expression. Take note of her hands and the position of her feet. Examine her surroundings and even her billowing skirt. Return again to the figure herself. What stories lie within her?

Chairman of the Board

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Iver Rose

1983

American, 1899-1972
Oil on panel
Gift of Anna Ajemian, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.21.1

Filled with both apparent humor and pathos, Chairman of the Board uses its title to poke fun at our own expectations for this painting’s subject matter. Stereotypically, a chairman of the board is often envisaged as a besuited businessman or businesswoman, seated at the end of a long conference table and overseeing serious matters. In contrast, a clown is usually imagined as a character imbued with comical qualities. Here, Rose challenges our type-casting: there is no boardroom in sight, and this red-nosed “Chairman of the Board” seems decidedly unfunny, if not altogether sad. Look at his posture. Look at the space in which he is seated. What is he holding and what does he have in his mouth? Let your imagination soar. Who is the man beneath the painted face? What can we dream up as the narrative of his past and for what reason does he sit here alone? Why also is he referred to as “Chairman of the Board”? What is his story?

Tyranny of the Innocent

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Louviere + Vanessa

2015

American
Inkjet on German etching paper from distressed negatives
Gift of Jonn & Elizabeth Hoppe
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2013.2

Study this image carefully, and note its ethereal tones and dramatic title. Here, a man in a dark suit carries a woman in a white dress in his arms. He seems to have removed his tie and shepherds her limp body through a field of high grass. Many viewers will look at the suit he wears and the white dress she wears and make immediate assumptions about who these two figures are to each other and for what type of occasion they might be dressed in this way. But is the obvious answer the only one? Who do you think these figures are? Where are they coming from? Where are they going? How did they get here and arrive at this moment? Moreover, what might be going on? The possibilities are exhaustive, as are the presumptions about the physical state of the female figure. Is this a romantic scene or something much darker?

Pensive

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Herman Maril

1934

American, 1908-1986
Oil on paper
Gift of the Herman Maril Foundation, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.27.14

Maril gives us a terrific starting point in our consideration of a narrative for this painting. By naming it Pensive, he already ascribes a feeling not just to its central figure but also to the overall mood of the work as a whole. What does it mean to be pensive? If Maril had not provided that title and emotion for us, is that how you would have interpreted the emotions underlying her behavior? If not, what other feelings might you have detected here? What is she thinking about? Where is she? And why might she be so down?

Late Afternoon

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Richard Segalman

2016

American, b. 1934
Oil on canvas
Gift of the artist, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.16.24

Impressionistically painted, Late Afternoon embodies its title in both its play of light dappling over linens and bodies and the relaxed, languorous mood of its figures. Segalman conjures a scene begging for a backstory, giving us just enough information to make out the two figures and our position relative to them in this room. But are we meant to be in the room with these male and female figures? Or are we witnessing this private moment from without, not actually there? How does our presence — or lack thereof — change your perception of your role as voyeur of this scene? What do the figures’ individual poses convey about each? What are they each doing? Consider any number of possibilities about who these figures may be, who they are to each other, where this is taking place, and what lies ahead for them. Note, too, that the limited details provided by the artist allow us to cast these “characters” as each of us might like through our own lenses, as their facial anonymity permits us enormous imaginative freedom.

Black Hat in Studio

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Richard Segalman

2016

American, b. 1934
Oil on canvas
Gift of the artist, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.16.6

Every Segalman painting intrigues in its canny mix of specific and generalized details. Here, a woman stands in a crowded space, surrounded on all sides by clothing of all kinds. What items of attire can you spot and name throughout the room? Are any more typically associated with one gender or another? What has the figure chosen to wear and at what might her featureless face be looking? Look closely, too, at her posture, with hands at her side and her body turned ever so slightly. Note also the source of light. Where is it coming from and what does it suggest about what we cannot see off-canvas? Who is this woman and is this more than just dress-up time? Look for any other clues in the room that the artist has provided to help form your narrative.

Billy

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Steven Schatz

2001

American, b. 1943
Oil on canvas
Mayfaire-by-the-Lake 2004 Museum Purchase through the General Acquisition Fund
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2004.10.1

Who is Billy? What experiences has he had? What do his eyes tell you? Or his posture? Or how does the way the portrait is lit or set against a loosely-painted dark backdrop impact your sense of him emotionally?

While Schatz based this image on a real sitter in his studio — Billy, the boyfriend of one of the artist’s models — as this painting’s viewer, you are left to conjure the rest of Billy’s tale.

Contrasts

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Adolph Dehn

1956

American, 1895-1968
Watercolor on paper
Gift of the Dehn Estate, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.29.70

Truly an essay in contrasts, the aptly-titled painting presents us with two superficially very different women. Train your close-looking eyes on these cartoonish characters, each a “type” but also each individualized with her own traits and set of emotions. Describe each figure, what she is wearing, where she places her hands, her posture, etc. What do you envision as their backstories? What makes them different and what do they have in common? Who do we relate to and why? Consider also how dramatically this narrative will change depending on who is doing the telling. Personal life experience and empathy for the lives of others will impact every story we relate.

Lila and the Raven

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Kathryn Freeman

2012

American
Oil on panel
Gift of the artist, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.10

Lila and the Raven is a puzzle of a work that seems to carry the themes of adolescence and American suburbia to newly ominous levels. Both psychologically dense — just look at the comportment of our presumed title character standing at center — and defiantly banal — this could be any street anywhere — the painting demands the investment of you, its viewer. This is not a work of art merely to be admired for its use of color or the skill of its artist; the experience of this painting is built conditionally on the part you must play to solve its riddle. There is a story here, however unspecified, that cries for narration. And note the title: why is only one “raven” singled out in the name of the painting when the scene replete with numerous ravens?

Winter Steps

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Henry M. Gasser

Not dated

American, 1909-1981
Watercolor on paper
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection

A blistery night. A snow-blasted hillside. A dark and cloudy sky, and a lone winter-coat-bundled figure trudging through the snow-covered street. The title of the painting, Winter Steps, hints at the next stage of the journey that is presumably to follow for this figure in the moments after this one, which remains forever frozen in time. Where is this taking place? Is this an American town or somewhere else entirely? What time is it? Where is the figure headed and who might the figure be? Of all the works in this exhibition, this painting looks perhaps most like a storybook illustration — albeit a storybook illustration whose narrative has been torn from it.

Night in Caracas

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Adolph Dehn

1945

American, 1895-1968
Lithograph
Gift of the Dehn Estate, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.29.16

The title of this print suggests the Venezualan location for this illustrative and witty scene. Dehn’s characters frequently have a palatably cartoon-like feel to them, and one could easily imagine any number of his images like these as satirical single-panel comics or political cartoons. Here, seven elegantly attired women cross the composition emerging from the far right, as if out of the woods. At far left, we see back-lit silhouetted figures standing at the edge of the woods, who seemingly watch the women from afar. Who are these women and why are they dressed to the nines? Where are they heading and where did they just come from? How has Dehn individualized each of the women’s behaviors? And what do we imagine happens next?

The Staircase

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Ben-Zion Shechter

1988

American
Charcoal on paper
Gift of Laura Shechter, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
Florida Southern College Permanent Collection FP.2017.17.1

There is something unsettling about this drawing by Shechter. What would appear at first to be a rather banal subject matter — a woman in a house looking upwards toward a staircase — seems instead to be a “genre scene” bathed in spooky narrative possibilities. Because the subject is so everyday, the very selection of this precise theme and this precise compositional moment by the artist suggests there is a lot more going on her than meets the eye. Enhanced by the grayscale, black-and-white nature of the drawing, we may perceive an almost cinematic effect, like we are looking at a still from a film. We are confronted with a female figure with her back turned toward us, such that we cannot see her face. She lifts her right arm to the back of her head, as she pauses mid-step to stare at the landing on the second floor of the house. Who is this woman? What has caused her to behave this way? What is she thinking? And what may await her should she climb the staircase? Is this were a movie, would it be a thriller or a comedy? Or something else entirely?

Barbara Robinson

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Hunt Slonem

2001

American, b. 1951
Oil on canvas
Loan from Henry & Pat Shane, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery
FL.2017.7.23

Here’s to you, Barbara Robinson, for grabbing our attention and engaging us as viewers directly. From your open return of our gaze and your brilliant blue wide-brimmed hat to the cross-hatched imastoed composition from which your image is constructed, you demand that you be looked at and that your story be told. Yours is certainly a story in search of its narrator. Viewer, that’s your cue.