Cezanne & beyond.IN 1907, THE FRENCH painter Paul Cezanne's posthumous retrospective astonished younger artists, accelerating the experimentation of European modernism. Cezanne (1839-1906) became for Henri Matisse Noun 1. Henri Matisse - French painter and sculptor; leading figure of fauvism (1869-1954) Henri Emile Benoit Matisse, Matisse "a benevolent god of painting" and, for Pablo Picasso, "my one and only master." Cezanne's inclusion in the Armory Show Armory Show, international exhibition of modern art held in 1913 at the 69th-regiment armory in New York City. It was a sensational introduction of modern art into the United States. in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of in 1913 also offered American artists a new direction. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Cezanne & Beyond" examines the seismic shift provoked by this pivotal figure, examining him as form-giver, catalyst, and touchstone for artists who followed. It surveys the development of an artistic vision that anticipated Cubism cubism, art movement, primarily in painting, originating in Paris c.1907. Cubist Theory Cubism began as an intellectual revolt against the artistic expression of previous eras. and fueled a succession of artistic movements, and juxtaposes Cezanne's achievement with works by many who were inspired directly by him, showing a fluid interchange of form and ideas. It places his work in context with more recent artists such as Ellsworth Kelly Ellsworth Kelly (b. Newburgh, New York, May 31, 1923) is an American painter and sculptor associated with Hard-edge painting, Color field painting and the minimalist school. , Jasper Johns Noun 1. Jasper Johns - United States artist and proponent of pop art (born in 1930) Johns , and Brice Marden Brice Marden (born October 15, 1938), American, generally described as a Minimalist artist, although his work defies specific categorization. He was born in Bronxville, New York and grew up in nearby Briarcliff Manor. , who, in quite different ways, came to terms with the master of Aix-en-Provence. His profound impact on successive generations endures to the present day. The exhibition presents more than 150 works, including a large group of paintings, watercolors, and drawings by Cezanne, along with those of 18 later artists. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "The exhibition is about the pleasures of experiencing the interaction of artistic ideas in a creative dialogue across a continuum," says Joseph J. Rishel, curator of European Painting before 1900 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia Museum of Art, established in 1875, chartered in 1876. When the city of Philadelphia planned to erect a building to house the Centennial Exposition of 1876, provision was made to keep the building permanently occupied; the Pennsylvania Museum and School . "The installation juxtaposes works from the past and present, with Cezanne as the generative pivot. Rather than charting a chronology of influence, we are especially interested in examining artistic ideas in motion, extended, reformulated, and transmuted by the hands of different artists. I'd like to think that the viewer will be able to experience it in a completely nonlinear way, always circling around to Cezanne." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] All of the artists in the exhibition have acknowledged Cezanne's profound impact on their work. When Matisse donated his Cezanne painting of "Three Bathers" to the Petit Palais The Petit Palais is a museum in Paris, France. Built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900 to Charles Girault's designs, it now houses the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. in 1936, he wrote: "In the 37 years I have owned this canvas, I have come to know it quite well, though not entirely, I hope; it has sustained me morally in the critical moments of my venture as an artist; I have drawn from it my faith and my perseverance...." Picasso, in his long and varied artistic career, often used Cezanne as a lever in his critical shifts, from his "Self-Portrait with Palette," through to the lyricism lyr·i·cism n. 1. a. The character or quality of subjectivity and sensuality of expression, especially in the arts. b. The quality or state of being melodious; melodiousness. 2. of "La Reve," and onto his later examination of bathing subjects both as painting and sculpture. Georges Braque Noun 1. Georges Braque - French painter who led the cubist movement (1882-1963) Braque , who, with Picasso, used Cezanne as his principal touchstone early on, spent time at several of Cezanne's painting locations. For him, "it was more than an influence; it was an initiation." Piet Mondrian, who especially was drawn to the formal structure achieved by Cezanne, brings an analysis of Cezanne to an abstract conclusion, as reflected in his own words "... that beauty in art is created not by the objects of representation, but by the relationships of line and color." Fernand Leger once remarked, "Cezanne taught me the love of form and volumes.... The power of Cezanne was such that, to fred myself, I had to go to the limits of abstraction." In Russia, Liubov Popova discovered Cezanne in the Moscow collections of Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin and drew from him the pleasures of geometric fragmentation that moved swiftly to pure abstraction. In the U.S., as modernism gathered force, members of the Alfred Stieglitz circle, especially Charles Demuth and Marsden Hartley, became fascinated with Cezanne. Demuth's still fife compositions in particular show a deep connection to Cezanne's bold late watercolors. In his autobiography, Hartley notes that Cezanne offered "ideas that were to make the world of painting over again and give modernism its next powerful start," adding that "there is no modern picture that has not somehow or other been built upon these new principles." Arshile Gorky studied Cezanne closely, and the exhibition reflects his keen engagement with Cezanne's style, especially in the mid to late 1920s. Gorky affectionately referred to the French artist as "Papa Cezanne" and, even in his later abstractions, there is a profound sense of the lesson of Cezanne. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Later, looking back on his career, Max Beckmann noted, "My greatest love already in 1903 was Cezanne." He "revered Cezanne as a genius" throughout his life, looking particularly at the dark, emotional early works and the heavy black outlining of some of Cezanne's figures. In Italy, Giorgio Morandi first saw Cezanne images in books in 1909 and then in person in exhibitions in Venice and Rome. His path as an artist of both still lifes and landscapes was set. Alberto Giacometti was introduced to Cezanne by his painter lather, but had to wait until the Venice Biennale of 1920 to see his work face-to-face. For him, the attraction was the sense of process rather than arrival. Cezanne is linked firmly to an existential sense of doubt and anxiety that permeates Giacometti's explorations of objects and people in space through two or three dimensions. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In this sense, Giacometti is akin to Johns, for whom Cezanne has been a continuous point of reference and has served over the years as a sort of eminence. The exhibition presents numerous works by Johns that make overt and oblique references to Cezanne, including drawings inspired by Cezanne's bathers and paintings of figures that are referenced in Johns through such works as the "Seasons" and "In the Studio." Kelly, meanwhile, first discovered Cezanne as a student in Boston and is quick to explain that Cezanne often is at play in his art making. Kelly's exploration of the relationships between form and color, figure and ground, take on an immediacy and constancy con·stan·cy n. 1. Steadfastness, as in purpose or affection; faithfulness. 2. The condition or quality of being constant; changelessness. Noun 1. for our understanding of both artists. Marden commented "that Cezanne almost made the perfect painting." In Marden's own works, Cezanne's pursuit of an essentially unobtainable goal of distillation, often through repetitions on the same motif, is a shared journey. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The exhibition places substantial emphasis on artists of the present day, including long-established masters such as Kelly, Johns, Marden, and Jeff Wall, as well as younger artists responding to the idea of the show, such as Francis Alys and Sherrie Levine. Wall's magnificent light box photographs show that Cezanne's influence transcends the medium of painting. Wall is a lifelong admirer of Cezanne, either through direct quotations or more often through implied transgressive references. "Our purpose is first to display the continuing vitality of Cezanne as an artistic resource five generations on," explains Rishel. "Of equal importance in our endeavor is to illustrate the unfolding reality that a different Cezanne has evolved for each generation, defined by what artists have made of him and passed along to those who came after. It is a continuing story." "Cezanne & Beyond" is on view through May 31 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It will not travel to any other venues. |
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