Berta Walker Gallery Presents Two New Exhibitions   NANCY WHORF: A Passionate Palette

Recent acquisitions&

ORBS:  The Veil is Lifting photographs, paintings, sculpture

MAY 25- JUNE 17, 2012

 NANCY WHORF (1930-2009) Painter of Provincetown

NANCY WHORF was one of the first artists to join Berta Walker Gallery 23 years ago, and became a frequent exhibitor and special friend.  Her passing in 2009 has most definitely left an artistic and energetic hole in Provincetown's art community. ! For over 60 years, Whorf was known for her vibrant, expansive Provincetown scenes. Her many views of the town, the narrow streets, the harbor and boats, snowy walks, hidden gardens, sunsets and storms are a testament to her love of this storied seaside town where she grew up.  In 2001, on the occasion of her one-person show at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum,  Nancy Whorf was honored by the Townʼs Selectmen, who declared her  “Whorf of Provincetown”, reflecting the European tradition of referring to an artist for the Town whose soul they recorded and loved, much like Van Gogh of Arles or Antonea of Messina.  This exhibition, the first since Whorfʼs death, celebrates Nancy's amazing career. Whorf's philosophy of painting was a reflection of her way of living:  “The world goes around, some things change; some things stay the same; community matters; nature is true.” In some ways, Whorf has created a kind of visual memoir, for behind many of the paintings is a memory.  Her eye focuses on the place she knew as a child and young woman - the busy life centered around the wharves when Provincetown was a vital fishing center. She says the work is "thoughtful and sentimental."  But Whorf doesnʼt ignore the sometimes harsh reality of living by the land and the sea. These are not just pretty landscapes.  The extraordinary beauty of Whorfʼs work is magnified by the truth she tells.  Provincetown is an emotional and visual place for Whorf. In an interview with Suzanne Horoschak for Provincetown Magazine, Whorf said:  "You feel, as a painter, that you have something to say.  You understate it, overstate it.  You have to have a certain philosophy about life and living and, for me, the wonder of it all.  Cornball as this all may sound, it's marvelous and wonderful -- the seasons, the elements, and our interplay with them....I'm not making a political statement because it doesn't make any difference in the scheme of things.  A plant or a storm, those are important, but the rest of it --it's all part of the highway of life.  I paint what I feel has magic to it."              Whorf continued throughout her career to develop her expressive, emotional, abstracted content through both subject and technique.  In a comment made during the last years of her life, Whorf said, "I know Provincetown.  There's a lot of information here.  I think I got better at saying more with less.  I wanted to simplify, to suggest.  That's what I like about the palette knife.  It's easier to suggest."  Over time, Whorf refined her knife stroke to the merest twist of line, the touch of color, to express the mood, to suggest the whole world of Provincetown.  The viewer is struck by the truth of place. But in the end, Whorf's work is really all about the paint. The rich, saturated color, the flick of the painting knife - she is a master.

Nancy Whorf, Loading Up the Wagon, 24 x 24”

Nancy Whorf, Provincetown at Night, 1992, 36 x 48”

At the age of 14, Nancy Whorf began her formal art study as a folk artist decorating furniture for Peter Hunt, and for twenty years owned a shop in Wellfleet that sold her painted furniture.  Yet, early on she wanted to explore her own painting more deeply and spent a year at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston Museum School, where she studied with Karl Zerbe.  The influence of Charles Hawthorne can be felt from her studies with Vollian Rann and her father John Whorf.  After joining the Berta Walker Gallery 20 years ago, Whorf started to focus exclusively on painting,  leaving her folk art behind  Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the country and she has received numerous

commissions from public and private organizations such as Lincoln Park Zoological Society, Tiffany's in Chicago, Abby Rockefeller, and other private individuals. Whorf has been included in numerous books and articles about master painters of Provincetown.  She was the subject of a one-person exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in 2001 and was included in The Whorf Family at  Cape Cod Museum of Arts,curated by Julia Whorf Kelly,  and  Provincetown Art Association and Museum, curated by Salvatore Del Deo. The Cahoon Museum exhibited a number of Whorfʼs Circus paintings. Currently, Nancy Whorf's painting "Green Trawler" is traveling in The Tides of Provincetown:  Pivotal Years in America's Oldest Continuous Art Colony (1899-2011), originating  at the New Britain Museum of American Art and now on tour, with a stop at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis for the 2012 summer.

 

Nancy Whorf, Some Sunset, East End, 1999, 20 x 24”

Nancy Whorf, Green Trawler. 20 x 24”