Figuratively Provincetown
The Other Provincetown Tradition
Provincetown’s legacy as America’s oldest art colony reaches back to the end of the 19th Century, when a number of pioneering artists and intellectuals were drawn to the town for its unique light, scenery, colorful local population of seamen and the trades that served them as well as a culture of respective tolerance, born from a tradition as an “open” seaport.
Provincetown continues to be a seminal destination for artists, with over 1000 artists currently affiliated with the small seaside village. The tradition of Provincetown being open and culturally permissive has persisted to this day sustaining an environment that is conducive to creativity.
The history of Provincetown art is usually divided, fairly neatly, into two well understood historical groups, the “Plein-Air” painters of the light and nature who defined the first wave at the turn of the 20th century, and the Abstract painters who dominated American art in the second half 20th century; however, this exhibit is about neither of those iconic groups
Rather we are presenting artists spanning the history of Provincetown art and stylistic approaches who defined their work through the use of the figure. Always present but never seen as a movement, they have none-the-less contributed to much of Provincetown’s most important work, from the fishermen of Charles Hawthorne, the tawny portraits of Dickinson, the figures in the landscape of Ross Moffett, to the living masters of today brought together in this show such as Resika and Del Deo.
While diverse in origin and method, all the works share a common ethereal and dreamy mien, like soft and often misty Ptown air, a bit reminiscent of Jean-Paul Sartre’s description of Giacometti’s work, as appearing out of the mirage to evince the human condition. Though atmosphere is not on the menu, it is the ambiance that surrounds the figure here. They are in turns enshrouded, metaphysical, metaphorical and apparitional. A place defines a vision. Perception shapes reality, the ambiguities in form reflect the ambiguities of identity. How the artists see the figure here is intrinsically a matter of place, living in Provincetown is to be part of something a bit unworldly, hard to grasp, and it places us who live and work here within a vanishing perspective and at times, a dream.
Figuratively Provincetown is an invitation to be a while with the protagonists in that dream.
Featuring Artists:
Jennifer Amadeo-Holl
Varujan Boghosian
Romolo Del Deo
Salvatore Del Deo
Esteban Del Valle
Joesph Diggs
John Dowd
Rob Du Toit
Breon Dunigan
Vico Fabbris
Alan Feltus
Bob Henry
Penelope Jencks
Karen Ojala
Richard Pepitone
Jim Peters
Paul Resika
Steven Skollar
Tabitha Vevers
Erika Wastrom