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Art: Hot Ticket
By MARY ANN MARGER
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 15, 2001
Before you chastise the young lady for falling asleep during The Sermon, consider: Is the woman beside her looking on in disapproval -- or pity? Perhaps she understands that the girl is actually bowing her head in grief, as signified by her wearing a mourning cap; perhaps her hands are open to symbolize fate resting with God. The artist, Gari Melchers, lived in a fishing village where sometimes men were lost at sea. The two men in the painting, seated separately from the women, have three empty chairs between them, perhaps to signify the missing men. The Sermon was on view at St. Petersburg's retrospective of Gari Melchers in 1990 and has returned to Florida as part of "The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" at the Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. The show, a Top 10 of 2000, continues through Sunday. Admission is $9 adults, discounts for others. Saturday is free at the art museum. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Call (941) 351-1660 (recording) or (941) 359-5723, or check http://www.ringling.org.
- MARY ANN MARGER, Times art critic
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