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).

Description

The work itself is a subconscious mark, the human psyche displayed directly on the canvas. Psychological automatism allows an artist to act spontaneously with unedited expression of their subconscious. The artist approaches a psychological automatism piece with no intention. Therefore, bypassing social filters. Robert Motherwell’s "Primal Sign I" offers viewers a means to escape social pressures. This work is a representation of pure instinct, how we would act without the manners of civility. All masks are stripped away to offer insight into the most fundamental representation of who Motherwell was in that very moment. By creating a reference to the Mars symbol, he projects an instance overcome by masculinity, channeling a primitive male crudeness. The drive and initiative to create such works, advertently questioning social constructs, showcase the prevalence of such pressures and the turmoil that accompany them. Motherwell blatantly exposes the masks we create by stripping them away and depicting untouched human behavior. However, one cannot operate in society in a fugue subconscious state. What Motherwell offers is a technique that brings the artist and audience beyond reality for a brief time. In understanding the method and technique of Motherwell’s Primal series, audiences question who they would be, or how they would act without the rigidity of both gender and social norms. Motherwell challenges the world we know in search of freedom by stripping away the masks society has taught us to wear.

Artist Information

Robert Motherwell

Entry/Object ID

3177.020.Pr22

Artwork Details

Date made: 1980

Medium: Aquatint, lift-ground etching

Dimensions (h x w): 37 in x 30 in

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type: Signature, Edition

Location: LR

Acquisition

Accession: 3177

Credit Line: Gift of Robert Duffy, 2022