Provincetown Artists: Peter Busa

Original Sin, 1946, oil on canvas, 22 x 30 inches

Another mid-century master of abstraction, Peter Busa studied with Hans Hofmann, as did so many other successful artists of the time. But he "also took cues from Stuart Davis and Arshile Gorky," observes the excellent book "The Tides of Provincetown: Pivotal Years in America's Oldest Continuous Art Colony (1899 - 2011)." The more angular or geometric works would appear to be influenced by Davis, the biomorphic, curvilinear works, Gorky. This is my favorite kind of art, but, then again, I also love mid-century jazz the best, too; that Blue Note sound. Maybe I like this period because this was the world I was born into. (All images from Acme Fine Arts, Boston.)

Venus Figure, c. 1953 - 1980, oil on canvas, approx. 20 x 30 inches

The Birth of the Object and the End of the Object, oil on canvas, 1945, 25.5 x 30 in.

OTHERS IN THE P-TOWN ARTISTS SERIES

Richard Baker, neo-pop oils

Blanche Lazzell, white line woodcut

Hans Hofmann, abstract oil

Michael Mazur, Rocks and Water, monotype

Michael Mazur, Pond Edge II, oil painting

Irene Lipton, abstract oil

Mary Giammarino, impressionist oil

Lillian Orlowsky, abstract oils

Fritz Bultman, abstract collage