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Mun 000 1275-Ross-Moffett-Retrospective.Pdf Self-Portrait, 1915 Onthe cover: The Back Street, Provincetown,1917 Foreword Ross Moffett was an important figure in the development of modernism in American Art after World War I. For over half a century he lived and worked in Provincetownon Cape Cod, painting its beaches and harbors, its fish- ing vessels, and its people. With the general reexamination of American painting of the period between the wars, it is now time fo r a retrospective study of the role of Ross Moffett. The Worcester Art Museum is greatly indebted to Josephine Del Deo for this exhibi- tion and the catalogue which accompanies it. Recognizing the significance of Ross Moffett's work, she has written a very personal and illuminating testament to the artist. We also appreciate the generous assistance of the artist's widow, Dorothy Moffett, and oth er members of his family in making available a number of key works in this exhibition. Richard Stuart Teitz Director Worcester Art Museum ~--------------------------~ Acknowledgments A Ross Moffett retrospective would not have And to: Vaclav Vytlacil, Bruce McKain, To the Director of the Worcester Art Museum, become a reality without the patience, love Henry R. Sutter,Alice Boogar and John Richard StuartTeitzi Dagmar Reutlinger, and constant encouragement of Dorothy Lake Worthington Gregory, my sincere thanks for Curator of the Collectioni Leon Shulman, Gregory Moffett. information and reminiscences provided . .. former Curator of Contemporary Arti James Welu, Assistant Curatori Jean Connor, Head Nor would it have been implemented without For their personal attention and superior of PublicRelations and Publications, for their the artistic guidance and complete dedication craftsmanship in the framing of the majority enthusiastic undertaking of the Ross Moffett of my husband, Salvatore A. Del Deo. of the paintings and all of the monotypes in retrospective andto the staff of the Museum this exhibition, I would like to thank: for accomplishing the task of the exhibition I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Chet Pfeiffer,The Artisan Shop,Provincetown my most heartfelt gratitude .... Edwin W . Dickinson for his invaluable Robert Vaccaro, The Taylor Gallery, contribution of recollections and insights from Provincetown This catalogue is lovingly dedicated to my a lifelong friendship with Ross Moffett, and to mother, OsmaGallinger Tod Frances Dickinson for her warm hospitality I am indebted to the following museums and and helpful suggestions. institutions which have made available to me much needed material for the documentation To George Yater for his care in photographing of Ross Moffett's career: the works represented in this catalogue, and Albright Knox Galleryi The Art Institute of for his great accommodation in the Chicagoi The Brooklyn Museumi Museum photography of many paintings and mono- of Art, Carnegie Institutei Corcoran Gallery of types over a three-year period, my most honest Arti The Detroit Institute of Artsi thanks ... PennsylvaniaAcademy of the Fine Artsi National Academy of Designi Miami To those whose assistance at various times has Universityi Museum of Art, Rhode Island been of inestimable importance to me: Schoolof Designi University of Kansas Robert Brown, Director of the New England Museum of Arti Nebraska Art Association, Office,Archives of American Art SheldonMemorial Art Gallery .... Murray M. Wax, Director of the ProvincetownGroup Gallery The following private owners have generously Marston Hodgin loaned paintings for this retrospective: Mr. and Mrs. Charles Edward Eaton Dr. Henry Fogelman, lone and Hudson Miss Faye Moffett, sister of the artist Walker, Joseph Acker, Clarence M. Davis, Clarence M . Davis, cousin of the artist, Captain Jack Papetsas,The Town of my deep appreciation. Provincetownand ProvincetownArt Association. Josephine Couch Del Deo February 12, I 975 Ross Moffett 1888-1971 There is a part of us that has disappeared into tically, gallops, staunchly pulls and strains, As Edwin Dickinson, a fellow student, said in the recent past with a certain exquisite regret, runs free through his canvases with an eternal reviewing Ross's attitude toward Hawthorne, the regret of a people for the unlimited plain, verismo of form. His horses are "theHorse" "Onedoes not have doubts about a man who the wild water and the undiminished vigor of And his people too are thepeopleFrom the has shown himself to be above expectations" men who could, as a regular routine, harness earliest significant paintings, beginning in But the teacher and his pupil must part at eighteen head of horses to plow a thousand- 1917, the unques onable stamp of his char- some logical junction of the spiritual and acre farm. The legend of a superior life force acter and interpre tion is one of the classic artistic journey, and Moffett soon began to once experienced by Americans will remain portrayal of "man 'The figures exist as pursue his own direction with a burst of part of us, but will never again be the reality monumental forms posed timelessly in atti- energy and an outpouring of painting. of our daily lives. Those men who lived in a tudes of human endeavor. They do not illus- period, now so seemingly remote in time and trate the spiritual life of the painter; they are These paintings, dating roughly from the yet so near to us, will be increasingly cher- the spiritual embodiment of the man. period 1915 to 1923, show an enormous ished. Oneman is not apart from his epoch, vitality coupled with a rapid growth of tech- and so. Ross Moffett's career bears out the Ross Moffett came from the Iowa farm with as nique. It is evident from the two portraits done sturdy rhythm and necessary simplicity of a much directness and evenness of purpose as an in Clearfield in 1915, one a strong, straight- tempo of life we cannot hope to duplicate. Try ear of corn. He was unswerving in his desire to forward self-portrait and the other a to imagine a contemporary painter calmly paint, and in 1908began to study under John remarkably sensitive and beautifully painted contemplating his future while homesteading Vanderpool and Harry Wallcott at The Art head of his father, James Warren Moffett, that land in SouthDakota with no companions Institute of Chicago. Whatever chance led him Charles Hawthorne's teaching had already other than a Martin rifle and several of the East, we may assume that the flow of artistic significantly influenced the young painter. "classics."Onlyin the earlier days of genius from the western part of the country Hawthorne's basic principle, the direct color American painting were a man's ambitions to the eastern seaboard was general at that statement to delineate form, had been success- equally subject to that kind of physical intru- time. There were others: John Noble, some- fully put to work. But even then, there was a sion and isolation. what earlier, Vaclav Vytlacil, Henry Sutter, control and interpretation far beyond the Karl Knaths and many more. The East offered typical Hawthorne student's study. The Ross Moffett as an Iowa farm boy observed the the brighter atmosphere of the painting world. father's eyes have a watery sadness through necessities of rural life and filial obedience. which an infirmity of body contrasts with the What determination by peculiar artistic And so, at the time Charles W. Hawthorne gentle strength of the features. The projection sensibilities, however, enabled him to grow up had begun to surround himself with a glory of patient, inner suffering isexpressed very so keenly responsive to the abundant natural still lingering in Provincetowntoday, Ross clearly. We see the same expression in the wonder around him and yet completely Moffett moved into this circle of light with "Portraitof Mrs. Edith Mahon"by unresponsive to the idea of farming as a way of primary attributes which were to receive Thomas Eakins. life is a recurring phenomenon. Doing farm stimulation and refinement from Hawthorne. chores on horseback, for instance, he learned Moffett viewed Hawthorne's teaching from The sojourn with his family in Clearfield had what the horse was in every physical and his own strongly individual vantage point, been enforced by a lack of funds for living in spiritualsense, and that "horse"steps majes- although he accepted it with natural respect. Provincetownduring the winter of 1915. When Ross again returned to Provincetown up to that moment. So I began and hurriedly mood and stark poetry that paralleled the work late in 1915, he rented studio number one at completed a small canvas from which I had of another artist expressing a similar taut and Days' Lumber Yard which he occupied for the discarded all drawing from actually present dramatic concept, the Norwegian Edvard following two years. Edwin Dickinson lived objects. Eliminated also were bright, high- Munch. Ofthe paintings from this period, next door during most of this period in studio keyed colors, and all representation of sun- "The Back Street, Provincetown," "Cape Cod number two. They shared models, ideas and light, with the consequent cutting up of the Evening," "The Gossips," and two untitled life in general. Ross's head is centrally prom- picture with cast shadows. I invented and works depicting symbolic figures in dark blues inent in Dickinson's painting of "The placed shapes instinctively, without premedi- and blacks, which dominate a winter land- Anniversary," and his painting "Mayme tation. The result was a low-keyed canvas, scape with mystic solemnity, are the outstand- Noones in Moffett's Studio" portrays one of produced largely by intuition. While it was ing examples. Photographs exist of a number their most frequently shared models, the hand- perhaps not much of an art work and I did not of other large paintings done in this period. some Mayme Noones. Another favorite who keep it, I at once realized that, good or bad, I They are equally compelling and enigmatic in often posed for them was the old Coast Guard had produced a picture that was not a reflec- reproduction, but their whereabouts are hero, Ben PotAtkins.
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