Prepare to carve some time into your schedule.

Keny Galleries, 300 E. Beck St., will host a rare and fascinating collection of woodcuts, Provincetown Printmakers: Modern Masters, by a predominantly female group of artists from the early 20th century who became internationally recognized for their innovative technique, beautiful color harmonies and sophisticated Post-Impressionist and Cubist designs.

“They were innovators. They were risk takers. They developed this technology, and because of that, were able to get very subtle affects in their woodcuts,” says exhibition curator Tim Keny.
Beginning in 1915, a group of women who came to be known as the “Provincetown Printmakers” began experimenting with Japanese print techniques to create “white-line” woodcuts, hand printing their woodcuts with delicate watercolor on a single block of wood, as opposed to the then-established method of using a separate block for each color. The result is delicate, sophisticated designs and washes, with intricate details and flattened patterning characterized in Post-Impressionistic design.

Artists featured in the exhibition include Ada Gilmore Chaffee; Blanche Lazzell; Tod Lindenmuth; Mildred McMillen; Angéle Myrer; Margaret Patterson; Flora Schofield; Elizabeth Shuff Taylor; Agnes Weinrich; and Ohioans Juliette S. Nichols, Ferol Sibley Warthen and Edna Hopkins, whose family was important in shaping not only Columbus’ art scene, but its entire culture, Keny says.

“These women were fantastic craftsmen with a unique sense of color,” he says. “And they were able to become successful because they didn’t have to rely on the male-dominated etching and lithography industry.”

But most importantly, the Provincetown Printmakers were leaders of Post-Impressionism and Modernism in America. “They were one of the first groups of American artists in any media to develop European Post-Impressionism design elements into American art forms,” Keny says.

This exhibit is the first of its kind in Columbus, and that it found a temporary home in the Keny Galleries is only fitting. One of the popular art gallery’s focuses has been on famous female artists of the early 20th century, Keny says. It has shown Hopkins’ and other Provincetown Printmakers’ work periodically since the ‘80s.

“Not only was this type of woodcutting an important art movement in the United States, but it was certainly a very important movement by women,” Keny says. “It took a lot of guts to do what they did.”

The free public exhibit will be on display Nov. 9 through Dec. 4 and will feature 17 scarce and original impressions from a prominent Provincetown Printmakers collection, as well as six complementary pieces from pertinent artists of the time, including Ethel Mars, Maud Squire and Mabel Hewit.

Many Provincetown Printmakers’ works have been featured in prestigious galleries throughout the country, including in Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cincinnati Museum of Art. In December, The Columbus Museum of Art will open a comprehensive Edna Hopkins woodcut exhibit, which will travel to the Provincetown Art Association Museum and the Springfield Museum of Art next year.

For more information, visit the Keny Galleries Web site, www.kenygalleries.com, or call 614-464-1228.