Madelein Larson has probably looked more closely at nearly every work at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum than anyone else has. Larson is the collections manager and registrar, and since early last year she’s been working on digitizing PAAM’s collection and, in the process, assessing each work with renewed attention.
An inscription on a watercolor by Charles Kaeselau gave Larson the idea for the museum’s current exhibition. “For Charles W. Hawthorne with everlasting gratitude from his humble pupil,” it read. This bit of personal text delighted Larson and made the painting something more than an artwork — for her, anyway, it was now also a source of information about the artists’ influences and personal attachments.
“Sincerely Yours: Inscriptions From the Permanent Collection” puts Larson’s discoveries on view through 21 modestly sized works that all include words — what she calls “inscription data” — in their margins. The exhibition, curated by Larson and Katherine Smails, includes artwork spanning nearly 100 years in different styles and mediums. All of the artists included are affiliated with Provincetown, and most of them are historic figures.
The exhibition notes define inscriptions broadly to include signatures, dates, edition numbers, and labels. But Larson was most interested in ones made by the artist’s hand and revealing webs of relationships, ranging from the professional to the romantic. The inscriptions function as historical documents. And the majority of works in “Sincerely Yours” were gifts that were given to colleagues, friends, spouses, and to the museum itself, endowing them with a status beyond commodification as products to be bought and sold.
Among the inscriptions recognizing professional relationships is a black-and-white image by photojournalist Arnold Newman that arrived in PAAM’s collection in 1964. As indicated in its lower margin, it was “donated in honor of Hudson and Ione by their friends Augusta and Arnold.” Newman included his wife’s name in honoring Hudson and Ione Walker, who were major supporters of the arts in Provincetown and are the subject of the photo.
Red Grooms dedicated his drawing Tappy Toes’ Girls as a birthday present to Lawrence Richmond, who was president of PAAM in 1978. Umberto Romano wrote, “To Aaron, most sincerely” on a single-line figure drawing given to Aaron Karlis, the son of Tirca Karlis, a gallerist in Provincetown in the 1960s.
Other inscriptions like Kaeselau’s connected artists to one another as mentors or friends. Two works by Raphael Soyer record his friendship with artist Herman Maril and his wife, Esta Maril. Soyer rendered each in a portrait with a personal dedication.
The inscription on a small etching by W.H.W. Bicknell reveals one artist’s influence on another. This Rembrandt-like picture of a wharf with towering masts behind it combines big subject matter with an intimate medium. “From a sketch by Stacy Tolman” is printed in the lower left-hand corner in small, simplified letters since the text was etched in reverse. Bicknell and Tolman were friends and fellow art students who shared a studio in Boston. The panel says that “details of their relationship are not widely documented” and noted their “tendency towards privacy.” One might wonder if they were romantic partners.
There’s a lot left unanswered in “Sincerely Yours.” Charles Hawthorne’s painting from 1899 is inscribed “To My Friend Kennedy,” with no further information, and an etching by Edwin Dickinson is simply dedicated “To Edith.” Larson hopes the exhibition will engage the community in providing more information about the artists and their relationships. (A QR code displayed on the gallery wall directs visitors to submit any information they may have to the museum through its website.)
While some inscriptions pose unanswered questions, others offer intimate details of well-known relationships. Robert Motherwell’s Delta is a recent addition to PAAM’s permanent collection. Inscribed “For Renate with Love, Xmas 1981,” this aquatint leaves no question that Motherwell gave the piece to Renate Ponsold Motherwell, whom he married in 1972 and remained with until his death in 1991. The “For Renate” is composed in expansive, elegantly handwritten black ink. Is red really the color of romance? Delta asks us to reconsider romantic sentiment in something less canned and more unpredictable.
One inscription that is not a dedication accompanies a sketch by Josephine Hopper. It simply identifies the subject: artist Edward Hopper, her husband. Josephine sketched a full-length likeness of him to which she added “Eddy in a fedora.” She also marked the date as “Oct.23.52,” which likely places them in New York City, where they lived when they weren’t in Truro. This small sketch appears to be on the back of a letter, which Larson confirmed, though the museum has yet to formally examine it. Faint vertical lines of typescript are discernable to the left. At the top, Josephine sketched a second fedora that floats on its own.
A small, study-like sketch by Edward Hopper is installed nearby. This drawing is on utilitarian brown paper, and, like his wife’s, it is more ephemera than art object. It depicts Josephine’s foot in a sandal, foreshortened with pant leg. The inscription affectionately reads, “Josie’s toesies.” Opposite Josephine’s foot in the other corner are addition and subtraction problems, possibly notes from the domestic life of this famous couple. Though the intent behind them may be unrelated, they occupy equal space compositionally to that of the drawing.
As a registrar, Larson says she often takes a “clinical” approach to works of art by gathering and recording information about them as objects. In her role as a curator, she says she had to think differently — this time from the perspective of a museum visitor. “As a collections manager, I can record as much inscription data into an object record as possible, but through this exhibition I also get to ask myself, ‘Why is it interesting?’ ”
There’s a lot that’s interesting in the show. The viewer must adopt a shift in perspective, no longer only looking at artworks from a zoomed-out vantage point. Instead, we are asked to look closely at the margins or edges of images to read the inscriptions. In doing so, the artworks provoke thought about history and the philosophical nature of a work of art. We come to see how the artist’s signature confers upon a work of art its status as something special: a unique product of culture and history, made by hand, circulating within and sometimes disrupting a world of meaning.
Sincerely Yours
The event: Inscriptions from the Permanent Collection
The time: Through Feb. 9; reception Friday, Jan. 17, 6 p.m.
The place: Provincetown Art Association and Museum, 460 Commercial St.
The cost: $15 (general admission)
