Provncetown Printmakers

Provincetown Printmakers

May 17June 12, 2024

Provincetown Printmakers

MAY 17 - JUNE 12, 2024

Front Cover:

Ada Gilmore Chaffee, “Provincetown Christmas”, 1917, 9 7/8 “ x 9 7/8”

Edna Boies Hopkins, “Merry XMas from Cape Cod”, c. 1917-20

1/2” x 3 1/2”

CURATOR

James Keny

INTRODUCTION

During World War I, a small coterie of artists, known as the Provincetown Printmakers, congregated in the small fishing town and burgeoning art colony of Provincetown situated at the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The group was primarily comprised of women but also including two well-known male artists, Gustave Baumann, and Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt. Some of the key women were Ada Gilmore Chaffee, Mabel Hewitt, Edna Hopkins, Blanche Lazzell, Ethel Mars, and her partner, Maud Squire. Many of these figures were originally from the Midwest and had been studying and exhibiting in Paris before the Great War prompted their departure from the continent. In Provincetown, they became well-known for their Post Impressionist works that were often characterized by vibrant colors, reductive forms, flattened picture planes, bold asymmetrical design, and, occasionally, Cubistic conflation of space and perspective. Here the white-line technique was perfected which no longer necessitated the use of several blocks to produce a print and contributed to the Modernist aesthetic.

Until the early 1980’s, these innovative modernists were largely relegated to the footnotes of art history despite the success they had achieved in the teens, 1920’s and early 1930’s. In 1983 Janet Flint of Washington D.C.’s National Museum of American Art organized a show of their largely forgotten work. Since then, their distinctive art has been featured in major museum exhibitions throughout the country.

A few prominent examples include the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s Blanche Lazzell and the ColorWoodcut: From Paris to Provincetown , which traveled to the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2002, and The Provincetown Printmakers, also featured at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2023.

As a result of the urgent need to address the often unrecognized achievements of women artists, many museums have recently acquired extraordinary works by these avante-garde artists including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Cleveland Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and Amon Carter Museum of Ft. Worth, Texas. Since the late 1980’s, Tim and I have been very interested in celebrating the contributions of these artists, especially the art of Edna Hopkins, Ethel Mars, and Maud Squire, who studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and had strong Ohio ties. In 2014, my daughter, Tara, and I co-curated an exhibition for Capital University’s Schumacher Gallery entitled The French Connection, Midwestern ModernistWomen(1900-1930)that addressed this subject. Over the years, Keny Galleries has been fortunate to place a number of these works in collections throughout the country including several museums.

I hope you can join us to experience the outstanding achievements of the Provincetown Printmakers.

JAMES M. KENY

Tom

Gustave Baumann

Singing Woods (Singing Trees), 1928

12 7/8” x 12 7/8”

Provincetown, 1917 13 1/8” x 10 7/8” Idle Fleet, 1918 11” x 10” Private Collection

Summer Rain, 1926

9 3/8” x 11 1/8”

12 ¾” x 12 ¾”

Private Collection

Wild Horse Mesa, 1924

Houses, c. 1936

9 ¼” x 13 ½”

Private Collection

Mabel Amelia Hewit 1903-1984

Edna Boies Hopkins

Bramble (Blackberry), circa 1907-08

10 7/8” x 7 ¼”

c. 1920-23 9 7/8”x 10 ¾” Private Collection

Cyclamen,

Pepper Berries (Pepper), c. 1906-08

10 7/8”x 7 ¼”

Private Collection

Pink Chrysanthemums, c. 1908

11” x 7 “

Private Collection

10 7/8” x 7 ¼”

Private Collection

Private Collection

Fuchsia, c. 1910-13

11” x 7 ¼”

Grapes, c. 1907-09

Apple tree Branch, c. 1907-08

10 7/8” x 7 ¼” Private Collection

Flowering

Purple Daisy, c. 1907-09

11” x 7 ¼”

Private Collection

Saucy Dahlia, circa 1915

7 ¼” x 9”

Hollyhocks, c. 1910-13

10 7/8” x 7 3/8”

Trumpet Vine, c. 1915

9” x 8”

Daisies and Snapdragons, c. 1915

Watercolor on paper

8 ¼” x 7 ½”

Yellow Dahlia (Yellow Splendor), circa 1915

7 ¾ x 9”

The Mountaineer (The Way Home), c. 1917 10” x 9”

Edna Boies Hopkins

The Appalachian Series

Mary and her Grandmother, 1917

10” x 9”

Rocks and River, 1917

10” x 8”

Boats and Water, 1918

9 ⅛” x 9 ⅛” Private Collection

Ethel MArs

1876-1956

Les Aigrettes, c. 1903-04

4”x 7 ⅛”

Private Collection

Girls in a Garden, 1916

10” x 9”

Capital University Schumacher Gallery

Flora Schofield

1876-1956

Maude Squire

Baiting Up (Baiting Up, Provincetown), c. 1917-18

9 ¾” x 12”

Private Collection

Lotus/Pussywillow, 1925

Two sided woodblock

13 3/4” x 12”

Sails and Gulls/Star Gazing, 1928

Two sided woodblock

13 3/4” x 12”