Modern Mix
An exploration of American modernism and the artists’ associations with Cape Cod
Through September 5, 2020
Cahoon Museum of American Art 4676 Falmouth Road Cotuit, MA 02635 t: (508) 428-7581 www.cahoonmuseum.org
Two unique museums on Cape Cod have collaborated to celebrate their founding collectors and the artists of American modernism, many of whom had an association with the Cape.
Modern Mix, at the Cahoon
Museum of American Art in Cotuit, Massachusetts, draws from the Cahoon’s collection and that of the Cape
Cod Museum of Art in Dennis.the exhibition runs through September 5.The Cape Cod Museum of Art emphasizes the art and artists of the Cape and Islands, and the Cahoon Museum of American Art focuses on a broader spectrum of American art and the art of New England.
The founding collection of the Cahoon Museum was assembled by Rosemary and Keith Rapp and includes works by William Bradford, James E. Buttersworth, Benjamin Champney, Levi Wells Prentice, the American impressionist John J. Enneking and Alvin Fisher.the museum is housed in the former home of folk artists Martha and Ralph Cahoon and was founded in 1984. Three years before, the Cape Cod Museum of Art was founded by the potter Harry Holl and artist Roy Freed with a large collection of works by Holl’s father-in-law Arnold Geissbuhler, a friend and contemporary of Alberto
Giacometti.
American modernism has its roots in Europe but reflects an earnest pursuit of declaring a uniquely American vision. Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) taught in Newyork City and in Provincetown, Massachusetts, from the mid-1930s to mid-1950s. In 1915 he had established what may have been the first modern art school anywhere in his native Germany. His Untitled, 1950, was an anonymous gift to the Cape Cod Museum of Art. Elizabeth Ives Hunter, who was the museum’s executive director, said,“this piece compliments our large collection of the work of his students. Untitled is a fine example of how Hofmann created surface areas of intense color that produce a dynamic tension between and among the forms, lines and textures.”
Nancy Maybin Ferguson (18721967) studied under Charles Hawthorne and William Merritt
Chase at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She later turned from their academic realism to the modernism of Arthur B. Carles and
his fauvist-inspired work. She summered in Provincetown most of her adult life and her paintings of the community show the influences of modernism in its early years in America. Her painting, Provincetown Waterfront, circa 1930s, is in the collection of the Cahoon Museum.
Judith Shahn (1929-2009) was the daughter of artist Ben Shahn and summered just south of Provincetown in Truro where she painted alongside her father.
Her silkscreen Small Skiff, is a modernist interpretation of the ubiquitous wooden dories of the Cape. It is in the collection of the Cahoon museum.
Modern Mix, in addition to the above artists, includes paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by Alexander Calder, Sam Feinstein,arnold Geissbuhler, Betty Lane, Blanche Lazzell, Claire Leighton,william Littlefield, Robert Motherwell andvernon Smith, among others.