Down the Road: Wellfleet Printmakers from the 20th Century is on view at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA, from April 7 through May 21, 2017. It’s a wide reaching show with exceptional examples of work by Clare Leighton and including many of the actual woodblocks for her 1954 book, Where Land Meets Sea – The Enduring Cape Cod, jewels in themselves. Leighton’s print of the Oyster Houses, 1948 (and my new favorite of hers), is paired with a related preparatory drawing, as well as Peggy Bacon’s Low Tide, 1952, Albert Edel’s extremely scarce Oyster Shacks, and even Stow Wengenroth’s Oyster Shacks. Thanks to Thomas Broker for going through this with me and putting it together in the first place.

For Bacon there are nearly all her Wellfleet subjects including early and final states for several, including High Brows, and some such as Priceless Find shown both in lithograph and drypoint versions, one with extensive state and printing notations by Bacon.

Thomas R. Broker and Arthur N. Gilbert are the curators of the exhibition. They both have a deep knowledge of the material and appreciation for the contributions made by the artists.

The Provincetown Art Association and Museum was founded in 1914. A renovation in 2005 and 06 expanded the square footage to 19,500. It is the most visited art museum on Cape Cod. Our thanks go to Christine McCarthy, Executive Director, for recognizing the national importance of the locally titled Wellfleet Printmakers.

A list on the STG site also features Truro artists JUDITH SHAHN and her father BEN SHAHN, Provincetown artists MARY SINCLAIR, BETTY WALDO PARISH, and sister and brother DOROTHY GREGORY and JOHN GREGORY. Cape Cod subjects are used for many, but especially for artists who may have been more casual visitors such as HOWARD DAUM who would have been visiting his NYC teacher Hans Hofmann, PETER GRIPPE, and HUGH MESIBOV.

Link to our page:

http://www.susantellergallery.com/cgi/STG_art.pl?artist=capecod

link to PAAM’s exhibition page:

https://www.paam.org/exhibitions/down-the-road-wellfleet-printmakers-from-the-20th-century/