Collection

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).

Life Support

Art

Life Support

Description

An organic shape, reminiscent of two profiles placed back to back, glows in contrast to the black background behind it. Colorful geometric prints intertwine to give life to the abstract figure. Embedded in the complexities of alternating colors, white outlines suggest the presence of facial features. From the top and bottom of the figure, red tubes extend and attach to a pouch on the right. Blue undulating lines and droplets fill the auxiliary container. Hansen’s work dealt with the cycle of life and death found in nature. Like many members of the Provincetown community, Hansen’s life was heavily impacted by the AIDS epidemic. He lost friends, lovers, and ultimately his own battle with AIDS. Life Support provides an excellent example of how Hansen’s work examined the impact and turmoil with the virus. During the AIDS epidemic, Provincetown felt the effects to its core. However, from the horrors of loss, Provincetown strengthened its community. Hansen brings a note of whimsicality to rather dark, intense subject matters. As HIV+ patients flocked to P-Town in the 1980s, the sense of welcoming and connection offered an energy to remind everyone of the good in life. Hansen’s work touched on topics such as struggles between good and evil, or love and hate, or faith and fear. No perfect answer exists as to why life unfolds as it does, but like Hansen’s work, being able to hold on to life’s goodness propels us forwards. In accepting and addressing the realities of the epidemic head-on, Provincetown found freedom from the negligence felt elsewhere. Henry David Thoreau once said, “A man may stand there and put all of America behind him,” in reference to the Provincetown dunes. But, when HIV+ and AIDS patients sought refuge in the seclusion of Provincetown, they were able to put the hate and misinformation of America behind them. Not only did the welcoming Provincetown community offer the medical care explicitly alluded to in Life Support, it also afforded its inhabitants with the necessary emotional and psychological support that was limited and even unattainable elsewhere. Although the AIDS epidemic that struck gay communities in the '80s and '90s has passed, there are countless reasons that drive visitors to seek refuge in Provincetown. Connection and community is a necessity that Provincetown continuously offers. Whatever mask an individual wears elsewhere can be shed at the tip of Cape Cod.

Artist Information

James Hansen

Entry/Object ID

1872.Pa07

Artwork Details

Date made: 1992

Medium: Watercolor on paper

Dimensions (h x w): 32-1/4 in x 28-1/4 in

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type: Signature, Title, Date

Location: LR

Acquisition

Accession: 1872

Credit Line: Gift from the estate of the artist, 2007