The Helen and Napi Van Dereck Collection: Part IV

This exhibition will feature over 40 artworks from the collection of Napi and Helen Van Dereck.

This fourth installment of the Napi and Helen Van Dereck Collection features the work of an array of prominent Provincetown artists and presents iconic scenes and features of historic Provincetown, including the Mary Heaton Vorse House, the Rose Dorothea schooner, and the Charles Hawthorne art classes on the beach. Napi passed away on Christmas Day, 2019 and, in the time since, we have honored his legacy and keen eye through three exhibitions of his collection. Part IV adds to the rich and historically significant Provincetown narrative that Napi developed while collecting. Every work has a story—the scenes of Town represent, as he would famously say: “the way it used to was.” Each artwork was carefully selected for a personal reason and he could tell you the back story of each one in detail.

We are so grateful to Helen Van Dereck for allowing PAAM to exhibit this unprecedented collection and I would personally like to thank Jim Bakker for his assistance in getting this body of work together.

– Christine McCarthy, Curator and CEO, PAAM