The Permanent Collection at Provincetown Art Association and Museum.

The Permanent Collection

Our permanent collection includes more than 5,350 works, capturing over a century of artistic vitality in Provincetown and on the Outer Cape.

This database offers a window into that rich legacy and our ongoing efforts to showcase contemporary artists working here. More than 2,700 pieces in our collection lack digital images. Our efforts to digitize the rest of our collection are ongoing; to contribute to this critical project to digitize the PAAM collection, please contact James Robertson, Chief Development Officer, by email at jrobertson@paam.org or visit: paam.org/donate/

COLLECTION IN THE COMMUNITY

PAAM regularly loans work from its permanent collection to community organizations and businesses, expanding public access to and appreciation of these important works of art. Works from the collection can currently be seen at Seamen’s Bank (Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet locations), Seashore Point in Provincetown, La Tanzi, Spaulding & Landreth LLP offices in Provincetown and Orleans, and David Marshall Datz, PC office in Provincetown and Orleans. To discuss arranging an artwork loan for your business or organization, please contact PAAM Registrar Madeleine Larson (mlarson@paam.org).

Dune shack in sea grass and ocean in the distance

Description

Kahn arrived in Provincetown at only nineteen years old to begin his training with Hans Hofmann and his studies in Abstract Expressionism. He painted this shack very early in his prolonged artistic career, only a year after coming to the Cape. The frenetic brushstrokes and impasto painting are undoubtedly characteristic of his studies in the Hofmann school. His style greatly transitioned in the late 50s, moving towards more monochromatic painting and landscape work. He stated that landscapes particularly interested him because of the expansiveness of the surface and the lack of edges and confinements.

Artist Information

Wolf Kahn

Entry/Object ID

566.Pa80

Artwork Details

Date made: 1947

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions (h x w): 18-3/4 in x 22-1/4 in

Acquisition

Accession: 566

Credit Line: Gift of the artist, 1986

Exhibitions

Solitude by the Sea: Selections from the Collection

A Community of Artists The Collection of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum

Crosscurrents: An Exchange Between Guild Hall Museum and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, 1986

Gems from the Permanent Collection (2020)

Hawthorne, Hofmann, and Hopper Preserving a Legacy

Hofmann Students from the Collection

Provincetown People and Places from the Permanent Collection

Recent Gifts to the Collection: Part IV (2015)

The Art Colony's First Century Part Two: 1933-1966

The Artist's Eye: Polly Burnell Selects from the Collection

Provincetown Connections: From the Collection of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (The National Arts Club, NY)

The Tides of Provincetown: Pivotal Years in America's Oldest Continuous Art Colony 1899-2011 (New Britain Museum of Art)

The Tides of Provincetown: Pivotal Years in America's Oldest Continuous Art Colony, 1899-2011 (Cape Cod Museum of Art)

Unknown exhibition, 1984 (PAAM)

Collection