Hans Hofmann, watercolor on paper, c. 1945, The Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust.
PROVINCETOWN – A new watercolors exhibit is on display at the Provincetown Art Association on Museum.
“The Watercolors of Charles Hawthorne, Hans Hofmann and Paul Resika” will run through November 3.
A reception celebrating the exhibit will be held Friday, September 6 at 8 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.
Curators Rob DuToit and Donald Beal will also give a Fredi Schiff Levin Lecture on Tuesday, September 10 at 6 p.m.
The idea for the exhibition came about during a review of Hawthorne watercolors in PAAM’s collection.
Hawthorne, who was a teacher of the early Provincetown Art Colony, was primarily a painter of portraits of locals in scenes of fishing life and romantic settings.
These pieces were mostly oil paintings of centrally lit subjects against dark tonal backgrounds, reminiscent of William Merritt Chase and others. Counter to these works, he made free flowing watercolors using light filled planes of color.
The movement of color and form is similar to the watercolors of Hans Hofmann, a mid-century seminal teacher in Provincetown and New York.
His emphasis on movement of color in space is at its most fluid expression in his watercolors and crayon drawings. Hofmann loved the Provincetown landscape and encouraged students to work in response to the environment.
The exhibition also includes the work of Paul Resika, a student of Hofmann and colorist painter of the New York School. Resika carries on the tradition of Hawthorne’s “color spot” and Hofmann’s “push-pull” with his use of watercolor and Gouache.
Support of the exhibition was provided by the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust, Seamen’s Bank Charitable Trust, and Jack Krumholz and Marjorie Jacoby.
About CapeCod.com NewsCenter
