In this post local arts blogger Ellyn Weiss desribes the new Jack Tworkov “retrospective” exhibit at the Provincetown Art Association Museum. She claims that it demonstrates conformity rather than growth and innovation. An excerpt:

“Sometimes a ‘major retrospective’ showing an artist’s evolution over a lifetime casts an important new light on the nature of the artist’s achievement. I felt that way about the Pollock retrospective at MOMA some years ago and about the Giorgio Morandi retrospective at the Met just last year. Sometimes, however it’s not such a great idea, at least from the standpoint of the artist’s reputation. Such was the case with Chuck Close’s huge retrospective at the Hirschhorn a few years ago; seen over a thirty-year span, the work started to seem repetitive to me, even stiff. And, I think, such is also sadly the case with the Jack Tworkov retrospective at the Provincetown Art Association Museum (“PAAM”).

Tworkov, who spent many summers as part of the New York/Provincetown axis, did some great work, no doubt, including abstract drawings with enormous energy and life and some nerve-tingling large paintings from the 60’s. The revelation in the show, however, is the degree to which Tworkov went with the flow, catching the drift of whatever winds were blowing through the art world.”

Click here to read the complete post. For more on the Tworkov exhibit, visit the PAAM exhibition webpage here.

Image in the post is a Tworkov work in the DeKooning period, from Weiss’s post.