Internationally renowned painter
ARTHUR COHEN is
a virtuoso, a master of just when the last note of a painting is complete,
and Cohen, now 76, has been painting Provincetown for almost fifty years. “When the timbre
of a moment resounds in a handful of strokes and a wash of shimmering
light,” observed art critic Jan Adlmann, “Cohen intuitively
knows that ‘balance’ has been achieved. ”Finding
that balance" the artist has explained, “is like walking
a tightrope.”
Cohen’s sweeping panoramas of Provincetown Harbor are developed
from storied layering and scraping - thin levels of paint built up
over a day, week or even over several years, referred to by Cohen as
the “ghost” in his painting. It is this “buried” sense
of time and continuity that evokes a sense of timelessness and spatial
infinity. Working with a focused palette of blues and grays, occasionally
some pink and green, Cohen repeatedly brings the viewer a synthesis
of light from different moments; his landscape paintings possess an
inherent monumentality that is eternally, classically Provincetown.
This exhibition also treats us to a small collection of miniature
paintings focusing on concerts performed by his wife Elizabeth, an
internationally acclaimed concert pianist, and including such other
important performers such as Blair Resika.