The Apprentice
/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.