CapeCodToday Arts Calendar

Glimpses of a Provincetown Collection at the Cape Cod Museum of Art

New exhibit to run September 19 through November 15, 2009

   Hawthorne Still Life by Blanche Nette Lazzell. Courtesy of the Cape Cod Museum of Art.

Glimpses of a Provincetown Collection, a collaboration of the Cape Cod Museum of Art and a local art collector, will be on exhibition September 19 - November 15 at the museum in Dennis. Together, the collector and the museum staff have fashioned an exhibition of work by 37 men and women born in the last half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century who made significant contributions to the artistic life of the town. The exhibition explores the interrelationships between artists who enriched the environment. The contribution of each artist was enhanced and influenced by the work of the others, creating a web of intellectual and aesthetic relationships and counterpoints.

In many ways, Provincetown represents American art in microcosm.

Provincetown is well known as an art colony; its founding date is generally given as 1899, the year Charles Hawthorne founded the Cape Cod School of Art.  Geography favors Provincetown. Surrounded by ocean on three sides, the light is superb, characterized by a steadiness and clarity that is unmistakable. The Portuguese fishermen and their families were never very affluent. The result was a town almost devoid of the “ought and should” rules that often characterize more affluent locations with a hierarchal class structure. The harsh seasonal realities of the seasonality of a fishing village produced a tolerant, live-and-let-live town where the artists, whether summer visitors or new year-rounders, found a welcoming atmosphere as well as reasonably priced rooms and studio space.

In many ways, Provincetown represents American art in microcosm. As a summer community, it was able to attract many individuals who returned to their home cities in the winter, or who migrated from one part of the country to another, always bringing with them the memory and influences of the Provincetown colony.

World War I drove American expatriates back home after 1914. At the time, Paris was the center of the art world and Americans flocked to the Académies – Julian, Colarossi and Moderne. In the cafés and art classes, young American students were exposed to the cutting edge of modernism and when they returned home, a great number found Provincetown to be a natural sequel to their European experience. Later, the Depression, and the several WPA artists’ projects it produced, provided another unifying experience for the artists in Provincetown. These projects not only produced art in public places, they also fostered a sense of self-worth and purpose among the participants which translated into a renewed sense of dignity for each artist.

Cape Cod Museum of Art, the regional art museum of Cape Cod, the Islands and Southeastern Massachusetts, is located off Route 6A, 60 Hope Lane, on the grounds of Cape Cod Center for the Arts, Dennis. Admission: $8, free for ages 18 and younger and museum members. Gallery hours: Monday - Wednesday, 10 am - 5 pm; Thursday, 10 am – 8 pm; Friday – Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm; and Sunday, noon – 5 pm. Information: 508-385-4477 or www.ccmoa.org.