THE BEACHCOMBERS HONORING RICHARD PEPITONE
On Exhibit: November 12 - November 24
Opening Reception:
THE BEACHCOMBERS
Two years after the founding of the Provincetown Art Association, a group of men, mostly artists, met the summer of 1916 in a small building on what was then Knowles Wharf and The Beachcombers was established as a social club.
A century later, the group continues, and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum celebrates them in the exhibit “To Promote Good Fellowship: A Centennial Exhibition of Early Work from The Beachcomber’s Club, 1916–1976,” which runs through April 24.
Today, The Beachcombers meet in what was once a sail and rigging loft on a wharf at the foot of Bangs Street, which they bought in 1918.
So who are the Beachcombers? Think: Century Association and Skull & Bones — in a camel costume. That is, an arts organization that takes its mission and itself quite seriously, but that can’t help indulge sometimes in hijinks that would have been more or less appropriate for a boys’ summer camp. It is no coincidence that it was founded two years after the Provincetown Art Association across the street, and by many of the same people. As the art colony grew in the early 20th century, it needed both a place to exhibit its work seriously and a place to fraternize privately. Its 1916 constitution said its purpose was “to promote good fellowship among men sojourning or resident in or about Provincetown who are engaged in the practice of the fine arts or their branches” or “who are intimately connected with the promotion of the fine arts” — defined to mean painting, etching, engraving, sculpture, architecture, designing, illustrating, writing, music and acting. Officers, committees and events were given maritime names.
RICHARD PEPITONE
Born in Brooklyn in 1936, Richard Pepitone was the quintessential self-made artist. He did not come from an artistic background, far from it in fact, but that didn’t matter, Richard was a natural talent, that that rare breed of artist who neither needs formal training nor cultivation by outside influences to achieve artistic mastery.
At age 20, he became an apprentice to sculptor Alfred Van Loen in Greenwich Village and when he had soaked up all of the knowledge and wisdom of his teacher, he then opened his own studio in the East village. Ambitious and restless, and always eager to improve, he traveled to Florence, Italy and returned with a newfound understanding of cast bronze and carved stone.
He then returned to New York, got married and eventually settled down in Provincetown, MA, whose rolling dunes, expansive seaside and openminded locals quickly claimed him as their own. On Cape Cod, the man and his art were constantly evolving and his artwork seemed to be in a state of constant motion and flux.
Always searching for a new form of artistic expression, Richard worked in just about every conceivable medium, moving from one to the other, with the confidence and ease of the familiar. While sculptural representation of the female form was a favorite theme that he would always return to–one that he perfected in marble, bronze, ceramic and resin (among others)– this was not his only source of inspiration. He made stained glass panels of wild animals, ceramic bowls reminiscent of the ancient cave dwellings of Lascaux, and wooden oars that became an homage to the town and its Portuguese settlers. He twisted castaway pipe and altered copper vessels found in thrift stores, seeing beauty in the discarded and function in the broken.
And when his body was no longer able to keep up with his always eager, always hungry, always yearning youthful mind, he returned to a medium that he could do anywhere and anytime–drawing, printing and painting. He enjoyed this simple and often solitary form of expression until his very last days, creating gorgeous one of a kind monoprints on wood and paper, and stunning limited series lithographs.
