With September round the corner, it is Back to School for many. Shops have already got their autumn gear out, we’re being told to prepare for chillier days. But what if we ignored all that for a minute and thought about the end of summer? Where would you go if you had a spare weekend or, even better, a week? The last stop of our art-inspired whistletour is taking us to the shores of the Atlantic, to a small town steeped in history, where Helen Frankenthaler worked for over a decade: Provincetown.
Helen Frankenthaler with Hans Hofmann
© Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. 2025
Located on the tip of Massachusetts’ Cape Cod, Provincetown is a hook-like spit of land on Provincetown Bay, which provided a safe haven back in 1620 to the Pilgrims arriving on the Mayflower. Battered by the perilous journey from Southampton, England, and looking to settle near New York in order to create a Puritan-faith based colony, the large natural harbour offered shelter before they moved on to nearby Plymouth, Massachusetts.[1] Provincetown eventually grew into a fishing port, becoming particularly prosperous through whaling in the 19th Century. At the turn of the century, the area became also a popular destination for artists influenced by the painter Charles W. Hawthorne (1872–1930), who was drawn by Provincetown’s wide dunes and ample beaches, as well as its particular light.[2] Equally favouring plein-air painting, the German emigré artist Hans Hofmann (1880–1966), too, opened in Provincetown his summer art school in 1938, which turned out to be an influential meeting and learning point for many American Abstract painters, including Helen Frankenthaler.[3]
Her early work Provincetown Harbor in the Reinhard Ernst Collection was painted in 1950 during Frankenthaler’s stay at Hofmann’s school. Dynamic diagonals structure a rough-textured paper, moody greys anchor the lower part of the composition, to then dissolve into pinks, greens and ochres at the upper part of the paper. It is a work full of energy and confidence in its search for a new pictorial language. Frankenthaler already shows her mastery of colour, which she tames and coaxes into the paper’s texture, pre-empting the soak-stain technique, which she would later develop on canvas. Provincetown Harbor also foretells Frankenthaler’s key interest in the interplay between water and light.
Provincetown would become instrumental in this exploration in the 1960s: Frankenthaler and her husband Robert Motherwell purchased two properties, 622 Commercial Street and ‘Sea Barn’, which became her joint studio with Motherwell, though each of them worked on their own floor of the house.[3] The artist couple shared their love for the sea [4]: their respective series Provincetown Series (Frankenthaler) and Beside the Sea (Motherwell) are an ode to the fluidity of colour, water, chance and control, and ultimately freedom.
Frankenthaler’s fascination with water continued until the end of her career, Sea Level (1976) and Regatta (1986), both in the Reinhard Ernst Collection, equally hint a marine theme in their title and colour palette, whilst never betraying Abstraction. Whether violent storms and the soothing blues of the ensuing calm, or the tidal changes and mesmerizing ways in which dancing waves split and toy with light and colour – Frankenthaler deeply understood the sea and its meaning for art. The artist’s continuously developing technique and pictorial language a commitment to accepting change as the only constant.
A visit to Provincetown should not only include sunbathing on its long sandy beaches, or a promenade along Commercial St. with its quaint and picturesque wooden houses, but also a morning or afternoon at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. PAAM houses many artistic treasures, including Frankenthaler’s Provincetown Series.
We very much hope you enjoyed reading this series focussing on Frankenthaler’s travels! You can find out more about the artist and her experience at Hofmann’s art summer school in our Podcast (in German): Frankenthaler – available on all platforms, or visit our critically acclaimed exhibition Helen Frankenthaler. Move and Make at the Museum Reinhard Ernst until 5th October 2025.
Text: Ines Gutierrez, Museum Reinhard Ernst
With many thanks for their assistance in researching and providing images:
Further reading:
[1] https://plimoth.org/for-students/homework-help/who-were-the-pilgrims, published 2003-2025, page visited: 25.08.25.
[2] https://www.provincetown-ma.gov/805/Historic-Provincetown, published 30.12.2014, page visited: 25.08.25.
[3] Dreishpoon, Douglas; Ernst, Reinhard; Kikol, Larissa; Kornhoff, Oliver; Schäfer, Lea (eds.), Helen Frankenthaler, Hirmer, Munich, 2025, p.30.
[3] Smith Elizabeth; Motherwell, Lise, Abstract Climates: Helen Frankenthaler in Provincetown, Yale University Press, New Haven, London, 2018, pp. 82-96.
[4] https://dedalusfoundation.org/robert-motherwell/exhibitions/beside-the-sea/, exhibition record: Robert Motherwell. Beside the Sea, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Massachusetts, 20.07–30.09.12, © 2025 Dedalus Foundation, Inc., page visited: 25.08.25.
