Thank you Victoria, yet again The Gallery Companion has done exactly what it set out to do. You inspire, delight and inform. Iām equally intrigued by the comments from members, such a great reaction. I too Iām about to disappear down a rabbit hole with the Isaac Julien link.
Ooh this post is so interesting! I have always struggled with Cezanne. Studying art history we learnt about his work forming the bridge between late 19th century blurry Impressionism and the early 20th century wacky weirdness of Cubism. And I honestly revere and respect him for this. But (brace yourselves) I have never actually liked his work and honestly don't know if I would have made it to the end of this vast exhibition! That said, I have never seen his painting of Scipio and it most likely would've stopped me in my tracks as it did for you Victoria. Loved hearing your thoughts on it and wish I could've walked through the exhibition by your side. It will happen one day! Right, now I'm off to look up Isaac Julien's "Lessons of the Hour" š
Ha! Exactly. I posted something about this on LinkedIn the other day with the same question - what's the point in looking at Cezanne now? - and without reading any more someone replied 'if you ask such a question you shouldn't be writing about art'. It's almost like Cezanne treads holy ground.
This is so great. I donāt think Iāve ever read anything that place Cezanne in any context except an art-historical one. His work always seems to be presented as sui generis. But of course he was a person in a world as complex as ours and was inevitably influenced by it.
The Cezanne portraits show in New York a few years ago surfaced some really interesting works that Iād never seen before. And there wasnāt an orange among them.
Yes, that's exactly it in a nutshell Aric. I never read anything about Cezanne that isn't in the context of art history and his important place in it. And although all of that is interesting, I'm also interested in how the context in which he was living and working impacted on his art.
I've been to see this exhibition, and I have to say I was over it half way through. It's almost endless, like you say Victoria, and I found it hard to look at every single painting because they were just variations of the same thing. Saying that, I was interested in the info they gave about his friends and family, and the influence that he had on later artists. I like his work, but the stories around the paintings were what made it interesting.
I think the number of variations of the same view of apples might be interesting for artists who are really interested in observing how an artist explores colour and form. I'm not an artist though, so in a way, I don't care.
Yes, I agree! It's totally contemporary even though it is 150+ years old. When I was a kid I used to wonder why Cezanne's images were a bit skew-whiff, and I used to think he wasn't very good because he couldn't paint things like they actually looked. But then when I learnt about him as a student the penny dropped that he was challenging traditional ideas about perspective and form. If you can I would definitely go and see the exhibition.
Thank you Victoria, yet again The Gallery Companion has done exactly what it set out to do. You inspire, delight and inform. Iām equally intrigued by the comments from members, such a great reaction. I too Iām about to disappear down a rabbit hole with the Isaac Julien link.
Ooh this post is so interesting! I have always struggled with Cezanne. Studying art history we learnt about his work forming the bridge between late 19th century blurry Impressionism and the early 20th century wacky weirdness of Cubism. And I honestly revere and respect him for this. But (brace yourselves) I have never actually liked his work and honestly don't know if I would have made it to the end of this vast exhibition! That said, I have never seen his painting of Scipio and it most likely would've stopped me in my tracks as it did for you Victoria. Loved hearing your thoughts on it and wish I could've walked through the exhibition by your side. It will happen one day! Right, now I'm off to look up Isaac Julien's "Lessons of the Hour" š
Ha! Exactly. I posted something about this on LinkedIn the other day with the same question - what's the point in looking at Cezanne now? - and without reading any more someone replied 'if you ask such a question you shouldn't be writing about art'. It's almost like Cezanne treads holy ground.
This is so great. I donāt think Iāve ever read anything that place Cezanne in any context except an art-historical one. His work always seems to be presented as sui generis. But of course he was a person in a world as complex as ours and was inevitably influenced by it.
The Cezanne portraits show in New York a few years ago surfaced some really interesting works that Iād never seen before. And there wasnāt an orange among them.
Yes, that's exactly it in a nutshell Aric. I never read anything about Cezanne that isn't in the context of art history and his important place in it. And although all of that is interesting, I'm also interested in how the context in which he was living and working impacted on his art.
I've been to see this exhibition, and I have to say I was over it half way through. It's almost endless, like you say Victoria, and I found it hard to look at every single painting because they were just variations of the same thing. Saying that, I was interested in the info they gave about his friends and family, and the influence that he had on later artists. I like his work, but the stories around the paintings were what made it interesting.
I think the number of variations of the same view of apples might be interesting for artists who are really interested in observing how an artist explores colour and form. I'm not an artist though, so in a way, I don't care.
I know what you mean Helen. It's an exhibition that will definitely appeal to hard core Cezanne fans and artists interested in colour and form.
Yes, I agree! It's totally contemporary even though it is 150+ years old. When I was a kid I used to wonder why Cezanne's images were a bit skew-whiff, and I used to think he wasn't very good because he couldn't paint things like they actually looked. But then when I learnt about him as a student the penny dropped that he was challenging traditional ideas about perspective and form. If you can I would definitely go and see the exhibition.