Winter Rooftop
/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.