July Artist of the Month: Paul Cézanne

[~JON]

Our presenter for July needed to reschedule and my back-up presenter also had scheduling conflicts. I decided Paul Cézanne would be an interesting artist for us to examine this month.

I have heard many times that a discussion of modern art need start with Cézanne. Known as one of the greatest post impressionists, his work and concepts opened the way to Cubism, Expressionism, and Fauvism. I imagine many of you have heard the statement, “Cézanne is the father of us all” which has been attributed to Picasso. I will give links to some biographies and share some of his works, but I would like to ask you, the reader, to share your thoughts and opinions on this man, his work and his lasting influence on the art world.



Still Life with Apples






The Bathers

Biography

Biography

A video biography with images of his paintings

A video biography

Cézanne And American Modernism
Cézanne and American Modernism is the first book devoted specifically to his impact on American art and its eager reception there.
It shows how American painters and photographers cemented Cézanne’s legacy by spreading their respect and admiration for his vision with their own art, writings, and exhibitions.

Cezanne ultimately came to regard color, line, and "form" as constituting one and the same thing, or inseparable aspects for describing how the human eye actually experiences Nature.


Unsatisfied with the Impressionist dictum that painting is primarily a reflection of visual perception, Cezanne sought to make of his artistic practice a new kind of analytical discipline. In his hands, the canvas itself takes on the role of a screen where an artist's visual sensations are registered as he gazes intensely, and often repeatedly, at a given subject.


Cezanne applied his pigments to the canvas in a series of discrete, methodical brushstrokes, indeed as though he were "constructing" a picture rather than "painting" it, thus remaining true to an underlying architectural ideal: every portion of the canvas should contribute to its overall structural integrity.


In Cezanne's mature pictures, even a simple apple might display a distinctly sculptural dimension. It is as if each item of still life, landscape, or portrait had been examined not from one but several or more angles, its material properties then recombined by the artist as no mere copy, but as what Cezanne called "a harmony parallel to nature." It was this aspect of Cezanne's analytical, time-based practice that led the future Cubists to regard him their true mentor.

For fun and a little variety from our usual format it might be interesting to examine his influence upon American artists such as Charles Demuth and Marsden Hartley or other artists you have in mind.


Housetops by Demuth



Still Life with Pears by Hartley



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Last Month

[raeburn10025]

Here's a portrait by British artist Paul Wright which was inspired by Cezanne I think.

[AddiesArt]

I adore Cezanne! Lucious! I always have the urge to reach into his paintings and feel every part, there's just something so tactile to each of them. I'm impressed how with his courage to free himself from the rules of single point perspective and of building from dark to light and allowed Emotions in his work.

I want you to see how Liubov Popova was influenced by Cezanne.
http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Liubov_Popova/

[~JON]

Thank you both for your thoughtful additions to the thread!

Lucious! I always have the urge to reach into his paintings and feel every part, there's just something so tactile to each of them

[TheRaven]

I know he's famous but I don't think he made the kind pf paintings I would look at much. I like the other two paintings better than the Cezannes.

[~JON]

Thank you for your honest comment, there is no obligation to find any artist of the month the favorite for you or even in your personal top ten.

[!Artnik]

Thanks for writing about him because I wouldn't picture in my head his paintings when I think of abstract art. The bio link wrote he ignored the laws of classical perspective and I didn't think of it like that.

[~JON]

I am glad you enjoyed the biography and it shared a new way of thinking about the artist.

[BlueRiderMan]

The month of July got passed me! I liked the videos - here's another one --

Artist R. B. Kitaj (1932-2007) talks about the profound influence of Cézanne on his work. I wish the clip was longer - interesting talk.
Author: nationalgalleryuk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPims...feature=topics

[~JON]

BluRiderMan, thank you for adding to our list of artists influenced by Cézanne.

[Kodanshi Helcarver]

Cezanne is one of my top 3 favourite artists. He made exquisite works, and his still lifes look real enough to touch — before you start to see things that look technically ‘wrong’ with some of them: odd angles, wrong sized fruit, etc. Beautiful. And his series of paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire are absolutely astonishing.

[aquabone]

i am a fan- love his landscapes!

aquabone.