By Ed Higgins
STUDENTS IN ART HISTORY 101 know well that Cezanne famously saw the world as cones,
spheres and boxes. However, now comes an exhibition that doesn’t go back to Cezanne
— rather it takes Cezanne forward to demonstrate his influence over generations of artists
up to this day. It is a graduate course in the impact of Cezanne, the consummate 19th
century man, on the 20th century.
Henri Matisse, 'Woman in Blue'
There is no better venue for Cezanne and Beyond than the Philadelphia Museum of Art the
show’s only stop where it can be seen through May 17. Philadelphia already has magnificent
holdings of Cezanne between the Museum, the Barnes Foundation and private collections.
Curator Joseph Rishel is following up on the mega-blockbuster show of Cezanne of some
years ago that saw the Museum outdraw the Eagles. According to Rishel, “Our purpose is
first to display the continuing vitality of Cezanne as an artistic resource five generations on.
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.” It doesn’t take much
to establish Cezanne as one of the most influential artists and this show includes some
50 works. Cezanne is known as one of the giants in the world of art. Consider what the
two 20th century greats, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, had to say: Matisse called him
“a benevolent god of painting” and Picasso said “[Cezanne is] my one and only master.”
The selection of Cezanne is juxtaposed with the works of 18 other painters: Matisse, Piet
Mondrian, Marsdan Hartley, Leger, Picasso, George Braque, Charles Demuth, Max
Beckman, Liubov Popova, Giorgio Morandi, Giacometti, Arshle Gorky, Ellsworth Kelly, Jasper
Johns, Brice Marden, Jeff Wall, Sherrie Levine, and Francis Alys. All of the artists in the show
have in one way or another acknowledged their debt to Cezanne.
Marsden Hartley, 'Canuck Yankee Lumberjack at Old Orchard Beach, Maine'
The debt has included composition, line and form, color and in some cases even meanings.
Of special interest is the work by Charles Demuth, a native of Lancaster, who was
exposed to Cezanne as a young man studying in France. His still life compositions show a
definite connection to Cezanne’s bold late watercolors. Demuth studied in Philadelphia at
Drexeland the Pennsylvania Academy of Art before moving to Paris where he became a part
of an American group of modern painters. His art is often categorized as Precisionist. While
Rishel is credited as curator, a number of others at the Museum collaborated, and
international scholars joined in creating the catalog.
“The exhibition is about the pleasures of experiencing the interaction of artistic ideas in a
creative dialogue across a continuum,” Rishel commented. “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 non-linear way, always circling around to Cezanne.”
As is the way with such things, there is a full array of programs, lectures, an art history
course, concerts, book discussion groups, numerous trinkets for purchase, and, of course,
a special Museum restaurant menu. The menu items are said to be inspired by the
paintings of Cezanne and other artists. The topper might be the Cezanne-inspired Apples
and Oranges, with Stoli Orange, Apple Pucker, and a splash of cranberry juice.