Provincetown: The oldest continuous
art colony in America; a vibrant, diverse
and exciting art community that today
is home to over 50 galleries --
we're proud to be one of them.

Gallery Ehva represents exciting roster
of Provincetown and Outer Cape contemporary artists and offers
year-round workshops for beginners
and edvanced students of all ages.
We also work with local art collectors and show Early Provincetown Art and
Modern Art on consignment basis.
Our shows change every two weeks
with openings on every other Friday
evening 6 to 8pm.

Stephen Aiken
Tracey Anderson
James Bakker
Rachel Brown
Daniel Cleary
Barbara Cohen
Didier Corallo
Daniel Dejean
Donna Dodson
Mona Dukess
Rob DuToit
David Ellis
Nathalie Ferrier
Jenny Fragosa
Wendelin Glatzel
Irén Handschuh
Myrna Harrison
Alicia Henry
Jenny Humphreys
Leslie Gillette Jackson
Zehra Khan
René Lamadrid
Jonggeon Lee
Bill Liebeskind
Kevin McDermott
Andy Moerlein
Ewa Nogiec
Janice Redman
Jackie Reeves
Meg Shields
Richard E. Smith
Lisa Ventre
Michael Walden
Rob Westerberg
Tim Winn
Cyndi Wish

Ewa Nogiec, Director
art@galleryehva.com

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WHAT WE DO WHEN WE
DON'T MAKE ART

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Gallery Ehva
74 Shank Painter Road
Provincetown, MA 02657
508 487-0011
© 2009-2011 Gallery Ehva
All rights reserved.

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Early Provincetown Art

Joseph Birren (1864-1933)

 

Oil on artist board painted from the balustrade of the Pilgrim Monument circa 1910



Joseph Birren, a landscape painter, illustrator and graphic artist, was known for a style called Tactilism, meaning he used paint in a way that gave the illusion of three-dimensional work.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 14, 1864 to Henry and Catherine Birren. He attended private schools and from 1883 to 1900, the Art Institute of Chicago where he was a student of John Vanderpoel. He also studied in Philadelphia, New York at the Art Students League, Munich, and Paris at the Julian Academy (1889).

At age 18, Birren was employed by the Chicago studio of C.F. Schwerdt. In 1885, he worked with Henry Knight in the creation of a cyclorama depicting the Battle of Gettysburg, and the next year, he joined H.H. Gross of the Gross Corporation on a second cyclorama (title unknown) whose circumference was 365 feet.

In 1888, the Gross Corporation commissioned Birren and several others to take that cyclorama to Australia for an exhibition. Birren was gone for a year, and his travels included Asia, Africa, and Europe. Returning to the United States, he spent two years in New York City as a newspaper illustrator, and then in 1892, he became Chief of Art Staff of the "Chicago Graphic" during the 1893 World's Fair. He married Crescentia Lang, a musician, in 1894 and joined the art staff of J. Manz and Company, commercial artists, and in 1899, he founded his own company called "Graphic Arts Company. One of his clients was the Sears Roebuck Company. He stayed with this endeavor until 1916, when he retired from commercial art.

In the 1920s and 1930s, he maintained studios in both Chicago and Laguna Beach, California, and in 1927 had moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he had a positive reception to his impressionist landscapes.

Exhibition venues included the Art Institute (one-man show in 1916), the Pennsylvania Academy, Corcoran Gallery, and Cincinnati Art Museum. He was the founder of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association and served as President from 1911 to 1915. He was also a member of the Laguna Art Association in California and the North Shore Art Association in Rockport, Massachusetts.

Birren died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 4, 1933.

Source:
"Who's Who in American, 1932-1933"
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Faber Birren, 1928 Biography of his father, Joseph Birren
"New York Times", 12/31,1988

 

[Bio courtesy of Askart]