|
|
|
July 2007 Event & Exhibit Highlights |
|
|
|
presents
Edwin Dickinson
7/20 - 9/23
Opening Reception, July 20, 8 - 10 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An Anniversary, 1920-21
|
|
self portrait, 1914 |
The Provincetown Art Association and Museum is pleased to present
Edwin Dickinson: The Provincetown Years, 1912-1937 which will consist
of paintings and drawings done during the 25 years that the American
modernist painter Edwin Dickinson (1891-1978) resided and worked in
Provincetown, Massachusetts (1912-1938), a small fishing village
located on the tip of Cape Cod. The show will differ from other
exhibitions in concentrating on little-seen works from private
collections shown within the context of some of his better-known
pieces. Also on display will be rare prints done of Provincetown
locales. Dickinson was honored with three earlier single-artists shows
at the Provincetown Art Association (of which he was a founding
member) held in 1948 and 1967 with a retrospective in 1976. This will
be the first exhibition devoted to Dickinson to be held at PAAM since
the artist's death in 1978. The show is to be a more personal tribute
to the artist than would be possible elsewhere. Artists and friends
who knew him are to share their reminiscences in a public program.
Contemporary audiences will have a rare opportunity to examine the
life and career of an artist within the context of the town that was
so central to his art and life.
|
|
|
still life with guitar, 1914 |
It can be stated unequivocally that Provincetown was fundamental to
the life and work of Edwin Dickinson. It was in Provincetown that
Dickinson produced most of his most famous, large compositions. Of the
eight large-scale paintings that cemented his reputation in the annals
of 20th-century American art history, seven were painted in
Provincetown. The artist's smaller premier coup (done in one session)
landscapes and drawings also matured during his Provincetown years.
Out of an oeuvre of approximately 1200 paintings and works on paper,
Dickinson produced almost one-third of them in Provincetown. He first
came to the small town in 1912 to study with Charles W. Hawthorne,
whom he professed was his most influential teacher, at the Cape Cod
School of Art. With some brief periods residing in other places, such
as the 10 months of the artist and his family spent in France in 1938,
Dickinson lived, painted, married and had a family in Provincetown. In
1939, the family moved 20 miles "up Cape" to Wellfleet where he
purchased a home. Throughout his painting career, Dickinson drew
subject matter from the life around and within him. Interior scenes of
his studio and home, beach and harbor scenes, vistas of Provincetown
streets, portraits of friends, family members, and other Provincetown
folk were depicted in his works.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Provincetown is one of the major centers for the development of
modernism in this country. Edwin Dickinson was a friend and colleague
of many of the other well-known artists who helped establish
Provincetown's reputation as an artistic haven in early years of the
20th century. He was also acquainted with and his work admired by many
younger vanguard artists including members of the New York School of
Abstract Expressionists, whom he knew from Provincetown and New York
circles.
Luckily for art history, Dickinson left daily journals documenting his
painting life as well as over 400 letters to his friends and patrons
Esther and Ansley Sawyer (both available through the Archives of
American Art). The Dickinson Family Archives also contains valuable
vintage photographs documenting the people and places important to the
painter during his Provincetown years. These sources are invaluable
for shedding light on the very rich years that Dickinson spent in the
small town.
As one of his students commented, "Dickinson didn't think
independently of his life and what happened on the canvas or the
drawing paper; they were exactly, identically the same thing."
Audiences will have the unique opportunity to examine the life and
career of an artist within the context of this town that was central
to his life. This exhibition, primarily comprised of portraits and
rare prints of Provincetown locales, will include works from PAAM's
permanent collection and artworks borrowed from several esteemed
institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of
Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, as well as
the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC and the deYoung Museum in San
Francisco.
The Provincetown Art Association and Museum was established in 1914 by
a group of artists and townspeople to build a permanent collection of
works by artists of the Outer Cape, and to exhibit art that would
allow for unification within the community. Through a comprehensive
schedule of exhibitions of local and national significance and
educational outreach, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum
provides the public access to art, artists, and the creative process.
The Provincetown Art Association and Museum
460 Commercial Street
open Monday-Thursday, 11-8PM, Friday, 11-10PM Saturdays
and Sundays, 11-5PM. $5 admission for non-members. For more
information, please call 508.487.1750 or visit www.paam.org
or email
cmccarthy@paam.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|