Dune Shack by Peter Busa (1936, oil on paper, mountd on board) Courtesy of PAAM

Review by Rebecca M. Alvin

For over 100 years, artists have spent time in dune shacks in North Truro and Provincetown, finding inspiration in the magnificent, unique landscape of the dunes. Taking this historical practice as its core, the new exhibition Solitude by the Sea: Selections from the Collection, curated and researched by Debra Starobin at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), features work that runs the gamut of Provincetown art history, from early to mid-20th-century works by Ross Moffett and Sol Wilson to contemporary art by Daniel Ranalli and Joan Cobb Marsh. What emerges from this small exhibit is a collection of artistic reverence for the dunes.

While, as you might expect, much of the work is plein-air painting, there are also examples of photography from Joel Meyerowitz, Marian Roth and others, as well as a lovely white-line print by Angèle Myrer, a linocut by Robert B. Rogers, and another print by Moffett. And then there are the painted Polaroids of Barbara E. Cohen, small works featuring one of her favorite subjects, dogs. Each piece in the show brings something different to the view of the Outer Cape environment, demonstrating the variety of backgrounds from which it has been perceived. Some contain figures, but most don’t. Some show the ocean, but all feature the sand, the foundation beneath our feet out here.

Peter Busa’s Dune Shack (1936, pictured here) is particularly striking for its bumpy texture, reminiscent of the granularity of sand and its tendency to get stuck in crevices. The work is done in oils, on paper, mounted on a board, and evokes the wildness of not only the dunes themselves, but the dune shack it features. It’s one of the most fascinating aspects of art history in this area that there are these shacks in the dunes that have been used by artists for a century. And despite threats to their existence over the years, many are still there and still provide space and time for artists to center their processes, whether they are writers or photographers or painters. This exhibition also offers support for this notion that art is important, that the places where artists can work is important, and that we must protect the sensitive environment of the Cape or risk losing what makes this place so special.

Solitude by the Sea: Selections from the Collection is on view at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), 460 Commercial St., through May 10. For more information call 508.487.1750 or visit paam.org.