Moffett Collection

The contours of Ross Moffett's career over the next twenty years followed a curve of unique expression and increasing acclaim, especially in regard to the representation of the figure in the landscape. His paintings, singled out for their great individuality and for incorporation of a "modernist" approach were exhibited in almost every major art institution in the country between 1920-1940. At the same time, he was represented by the Frank K.M. Rehn Galleries in New York and was given one-man shows there in 1928, 1931 and 1937. In 1930, he was honored by being named as the American representative to serve on both the selection and award juries of the Carnegie International, together with Henri Matisse and others.

A man possessing exceptional intellectual capacity as well as unfailing painterly intuition, Ross Moffett's broad interests ranged from painting to archaeology to history and philosophy. His absorption with archaeology led him to the publication of several important papers on the subject and to the graphic interpretation of archaeological elements in a number of outstanding canvases and a series of monotypes, which are now in the National Museum of American Art. Ross Moffett wrote the first comprehensive history of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, which he published in 1964, "Art In Narrow Streets", an achievement that fittingly complemented his years of uninterrupted association with that organization. During the last decade of his life, he championed the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore and was successful in leading the effort to preserve 3000 acres of the virgin Province Lands in Provincetown for inclusion in the Park.

Ross Moffett's measure cannot be taken easily. In an era of growing cultural two dimensionality, he remained a three dimensional man. He painted, from the beginning, with intense personal focus and with all the certainty of a found love. Composing canvases which inevitably reflected the character of the American West and the life of the farmer but which transposed those values to the glacial repose of the East and to the life of the fisherman, he achieved full maturity in Provincetown where he was inspired to create figures that represent men as a universal presence.

Josephine C. Del Deo