Exhibition note

“The Provincetown Printmakers” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is a jewel of an exhibition on a topic dear to your correspondent’s heart. The work is a gorgeous cross-section of early modernist styles in their American manifestations. The personal histories of the associated artists are interesting, and Provincetown remains an artistic center of note thanks to their studio work and collaboration.

Every mfa exhibition under the directorship of Matthew Teitelbaum is an act of culture war, but “The Provincetown Printmakers” is mostly an exception. Signage nudges viewers to “explore . . . the leading role women played in the creative explosion that occurred in Provincetown in the first half of the twentieth century.” But the museum leaves it at that. This was surprising, given that the...