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 "a benevolent god of painting," and for Pablo Picasso "my one and only master." Cezanne's inclusion in the Armory Show in New York in 1913 also offered American artists a new direction. The exhibition will be on view from February 26, 2009 to May 2009.
This exhibition will examine the seismic shift provoked by this pivotal figure, examining him as form-giver, catalyst, and touchstone for artists who followed. It will survey the development of an artistic vision that anticipated Cubism and fueled a succession of artistic movements, and will juxtapose Cezanne's achievement with works by many who were inspired directly by him, showing a fluid interchange of form and ideas.
It will place his work in context with more recent artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Jasper Johns, and Brice Marden, who in quite different ways came to terms with the master of Aix-en-Provence. This profound impact on successive generations endures to the present day. The exhibition will present about 150 works, including a large group of paintings, watercolors and drawings by Cezanne, along with those of 17 later artists. The works will be drawn from public and private collections around the world, and will be seen only in Philadelphia.
Catalogue: The exhibition will be accompanied by a major scholarly publication, co-published by the Museum and Yale University Press, and generously supported by the Davenport Family Foundation and the Lenfest Foundation.
It will encompass critical scholarship on Cezanne and modernism, as well as essays on individual artists' responses to Cezanne, which will also incorporate interviews with living artists. Contributors include: Joseph Rishel (writing an introductory essay and essays on Bonnard and Hartley), Katherine Sachs (on Kelly and Marden), Michael Taylor (on Gorky), Mark Mitchell (on Demuth), Richard Shiff (with an introductory essay on Cezanne's impact on 20th and 21st century art), Yve-Alain Bois (on Matisse), John Elderfield (on Picasso), Joop Joosten (on Mondrian), Chris Green (on Leger), John Golding (on Braque), Anabelle Kienle (on Beckmann), Albert Kostenevich (on Popova), Carolyn Lanchner (on Giacometti), Roberta Bernstein (on Johns), and Jean-Francois Chevrier (on Wall). Sponsors: This exhibition is made possible by ADVANTA.
Additional funding was provided by The Annenberg Foundation Fund, The Florence Gould Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Promotional support provided by NBC 10 WCAU; The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com. -- www.philamuseum.org
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