PROVINCETOWN ARTIST REGISTRY

March, 1995

I was fortunate to have taken part in one of the most important periods of art in this century. The 1930's through the 1950's saw a cultural upheaval where diverse concepts in painting went from one extreme to another: from realism to abstraction. In the forefront were the WPA (Works Projects Administration - Art Project) and in some measure the Provincetown Art Association. They promoted cultural awareness of the different pictorial concepts which were the beginning of the changing scene of plastic expression.

The WPA was a great innovative idea that gave me and other artists the opportunity to concentrate on our work. It was unique in the history of American art and responsible for many murals and easel paintings which became government property. The artists received a weekly salary plus artist's materials. We would gather to pick up our checks at 110 King Street in Manhattan. Since there was always a long wait, we had time to talk about the current art scene. It was there that I learned of Hofmann.

The Hofmann School and the influx of European artists opened my sensibility to new horizons. These associations changed my visual perception. I no longer saw painting as an imitation of nature, but, instead, as an attempt to interpret nature on the picture plane.

I came to Provincetown to study with Hofmann. I found a most desirable north light studio at the Days Lumber Yard, now the Fine Arts Work Center. Primitive as it was, it was memorable because of the camaraderie and social and cultural exchange among the artists there. At the time, the group of artists consisted of Hans Hofmann, George McNeil, Fritz Bultman, William Freed, Perle Fine, Peter Busa, and Bruce McKain. In the early '50s, they were joined by Jan Muller, Myron Stout, Myrna Harrison, Earl Pierce and James Gahagan. The catwalk became our forum of exchange for ideas of pictorial reality and chit chat.

In the late fifties, my husband, the painter William Freed, and I moved from Days Lumber Yard and built our studios on Brewster Street. Provincetown and the Provincetown Art Association provided an umbrella for artists of all schools of thought. The town and PAAM continue to encourage and accept controversial aesthetic ideas.

The future for me means new challenges, new experiences, and new creative possibilities. George McNeil had it right: "...the first eighty years are the hardest, so now I hope for the best: freedom leading to more freedom."

--Lillian Orlowsky
Provincetown

[from catalog published by Provincetown Art Association and Museum, 1995]