Notes on the Exhibition Philosophy 
The museum's founders were concerned that the best art produced in the region would find its way to collectors and museums all over the country so that future generations of Cape and Islands children would have no concrete examples of their artistic heritage. With that in mind, the museum has chosen to restrict its collections to work produced by artists with a regional association.
The exhibition policy, however, mandates the inclusion of work by other artists because of their influence on the art world in general. For example, an exhibition of Cape and Islands printmakers could be supplemented by an exhibition of old master prints because the latter had a profound influence on the former.
Using the walls of the museum as our canvas, we strive, as curators, to provide a varied visual experience so that any one individual will be able to find work which will draw them into the world of the artist. In addition, we hope to provide aesthetically pleasing and intellectually stimulating transitions from one gallery to another.
Works from the permanent collection are always displayed in the Stout Gallery and may be included in other exhibition areas as well. We also exhibit work by a variety of living regional artists and collectors.
The museum is actively involved in scholarship covering artists of our region and from time to time, produces exhibitions and publications of their work.
- Elizabeth Ives Hunter, Executive Director
- Michael Giaquinto, Exhibitions Curator
Image: "Conversation on the Shore" by Ross Moffett
WHERE IS GEISSBUHLER? 
In 2008 CCMA will present an exhibit on the work of artist/sculptor Arnold Geissbuhler. A gift of 39 pieces of the art of Geissbuhler, by Arnold and his wife Elizabeth Chase, formed the basis for the permanent collection of this museum in 1982. However, he created hundreds, possibly thousands, of works during his lengthy career. This can be confirmed through the lists of sales kept by Geissbuhler. He sold pieces in Boston, New York, Provincetown, Wellfleet, Dennis and other places in the United States, as well as in Paris, France. These art works were in bronze, plaster, ceramic, welded metal and stone, as well as drawings and paintings in stylistic treatments ranging from academic to abstract. Many of the three-dimensional pieces are signed with a mongram of "AG."
An interesting sidelight is that the research shows that Geissbuhler had a strong and long friendship with Alberto Giacometti, a major 20th century painter and sculptor. This relationship started when they were students at the Academy de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris in 1922 and continued until Giacometti's death in 1966. Geissbuhler lived on, producing work, until his death in 1993.
The whereabouts of a large number of these pieces are not known at this time. This museum is searching for their location with the possibility of including selected pieces in the upcoming exhibit. If you feel you might have a piece by Geissbuhler, or know where one is, please contact Al Kochka, Geissbuhler Project at geissbuhler@ccmoa.org or 508-385-4477 ext 15.
Image: "Three Musicians" by Arnold Geissbuhler
COLLECTION HIGHLIGHT - March 2008
A wonderful Alexander Calder print from David and Nancy Kaplan is among the favorites of CCMA Registrar Angela Bilski, who says, "While primarily known for his mobiles and large sculptures, Alexander Calder also produced paintings, drawings, jewelry, toys and prints. Calder worked with Stanley William Hayter, who founded the Atelier 17 Workshop in Paris for graphic artists and helped establish graphic arts to be recognized as its own art form.
Calder's impact on Cape Cod art can be seen in the work of Arthur Bauman, whose mobile, "Once in a Blue Moon," hangs prominently in the Hope-McClennan Gallery. Bauman began to make mobiles in 1968 after watching films about Calder when he was in the U.S. Foreign Service in Ahman, Jordan.
25 years ago, sculptors Harry Holl and Roy Freed founded Cape Cod Museum of Art to preserve the art of the Cape for Cape Codders. Today, CCMA is the only museum totally dedicated to preserving and exhibiting works by outstanding artists, past and present, of the entire Cape Cod and Islands region.
The influence of the artists highlighted here has been profound. They represent a series of interrelationships - student to teacher - colleague to colleague - which unites the artistic heritage of the region. 
Several Cape teachers have been very influential in Cape Cod and American Art History, including Charles Hawthorne, Henry Hensche, R. H. Ives Gammell, and Hans Hofmann, all represented in the museum's collection. Many of their students are also represented in the collection and their work shows fine examples of learning from their teachers and taking their own direction.
The Cape's natural beauty and luminous light inspired Impressionists to seek it out at the turn of the 20th century. In 1899, Charles W. Hawthorne established the first art school on the Cape, the Cape School of Art, in Provincetown. He also built a reputation as a painter of portraits and you can see an example of his work in “Portrait of Anita,” in the collection.
Edwin Dickinson ("Female Nude Study") and R. H. Ives Gammell ("Angel with Censer") both studied with Hawthorne as young men, and then followed very different paths. Dickenson concentrated on the grays of the coastal landscape, and Gammell pursued his intellectual and allegorical interests.
Hawthorne taught Henry Hensche, who later took over the school, and taught there for 50 years. Hensche taught his students to “see the world as a mosaic of color changes.” His “Tea Time” illustrates impressionist color observation in a formal still life arrangement. Hensche's student, Hilda Neily clearly learned the art of impressionist observation as shown in her outdoor arrangement, "Ginger Jar in Morning."
After the Second World War there was a tremendous influx of eager art students. Sal Del Deo ("Still Life Concept II") came to study with Hensche and lives in the town still. Varujan Boghosian ("Something for Magritte") and Robert Douglas Hunter ("The Life Guard") and other artists in the permanent collection who will be on view later, all came at this period and mixed with each other and developed their personal styles.
At the same time that Gammell and Hensche were teaching impressionist and academic techniques, German born Hans Hofmann was defining abstract expressionism. Hofmann's "Untitled" epitomizes his work from the early 1950's. Among the many Hofmann students represented in the CCMA collection are Haynes Ownby ("Homage to a Crop Circle"), Robert Henry ("The Surprise Bravo") and Selina Trieff ("Two Figures - Red and Black").
Artists sought other areas of the Cape in which to settle. CCMA's co-founder, Harry Holl, settled in Dennis and founded Scargo Pottery, a center of sculpture and ceramics, and has trained many of the serious potters on the Cape. The works of his father-in-law, Swiss born sculptor Arnold Geissbuhler ("Portrait of Mr. Virot"), formed the core collection of the museum. Art Historian Al Kochka is currently researching Geissbuhler's influences, his life and works in a special project for CCMA.
COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS
Image: "Portrait of Anita," by Charles Hawthorne
THE MORRIS COHEN COLLECTION: AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISTS
John Joseph Enneking & Joseph Eliot Enneking
The paintings in this exhibition are the gift of the late Professor Morris Cohen. Professor Cohen (1911-2005) taught at MIT and is considered the father of modern materials science. He received numerous awards for his work in this country and abroad, including the National Medal of Science, given by President Carter in 1977.
John Joseph Enneking (1841-1916), American landscape painter, was born of German ancestry, in Minster, Ohio in 1841.
Enneking was a plein-air painter and his favorite subject was the twilight of New England. During his lifetime, his work was known and admired all over the country. He enjoyed a distinguished career as an artist and served as President of the Boston Art Club.
The works in this exhibition depict his love for landscape and point to the role he played in American Art History as an important link in the chain connecting the early French Impressionists to the American Impressionist movement. His first European trip, from 1872 to 1876, gave him the opportunity to study, both the established academic methods and the flowering of French Impressionism almost a full generation before the men and women who comprised the Boston School and his work influenced them.
Enneking cared passionately about unspoiled landscape. He became an active conservationist, and was elected to the position of Park Commissioner in Boston. The quality of his work and his personal humility are demonstrated by the fact that Childe Hassam invited him to join the Group of 10 American Painters and he declined. In 1915 a dinner was given in his honor at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. Over 1,000 people attended and Enneking was crowned with the victor's laurel wreath by Cyrus Dallin, the sculptor whose APPEAL TO THE GREAT SPIRIT stands in front of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Joseph Eliot Enneking (1881-1942) studied with his father and at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with Joseph DeCamp, Frank Benson and Edmond C. Tarbell. He was an impressionist painter who recorded the New England landscape and was known for his sun-splashed landscapes.
Elizabeth Ives Hunter, Executive Director
Image: "Boston Common," by John Joseph Enneking
CCMA RECEIVES ANONYMOUS GIFT OF HANS HOFMANN PAINTING
When I paint, I improvise I deny theory and method and rely only on empathy and feeling In teaching, it is just the opposite, I must account for every line, shape and color. One is forced to explain the inexplicable. - Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann (1880 - 1966), renowned Provincetown artist and teacher, was considered by many to be the Father of Abstract Expressionism. He pioneered teaching of this new movement of modern art which catapulted America to the forefront of the world art stage in the middle of the 20th century.
Hofmann's paintings are held in many of the world's museums, and Cape Cod Museum of Art was recently given an anonymous gift of his work, Untitled, an oil on canvas. In receiving the donation, Elizabeth Ives Hunter, CCMA executive director said, We are delighted to have this fine example of this important painter's work. He contributed so much to the art of Cape Cod and to American art. This piece compliments our large collection of the work of his students. Untitled is a fine example of how Hofmann created surface areas of intense color that produce a dynamic tension between and among the forms, lines and textures.
Art Historian Al Kochka, CCMA's director of The Geissbuhler Project, added, Hofmann motivated a mighty surge of creative artistic output that inspired an estimated 6,000 students whom he taught at his schools. So many of his students achieved careers in their own right.
From the mid-30's through the late 50's, Hofmann divided his time teaching between New York and Provincetown. Among his students whose work is in CCMA's permanent collection are: Paul Resika, Lillian Orlowsky, William Freed, Mary Kass, Selina Trieff, Robert Henry, Fritz Bultman, Tara Yamamoto, Myrna Harrison, Tony Vevers, James Gahagan, George McNeil, Sheila Burlingame, Erik Koch, Haynes Owmby, Peter Busa, Jo Sandman, Robert Beauchamp, Robert Fisher, Toni Laselle, Jack Larned, Earl Pierce, William Littlefield, Red Grooms, and Charles Kaeselau. These artists expand the meaning of Hofmann's influence and the vital interchange of ideas.
