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Picasso
Cézanne, exhibition
at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence
What a
surprise! First discovery: Picasso was influenced by Cézanne… who
he regarded as his only Master.
Second
discovery: Cézanne was the first artist to introduce relief into his
paintings, a concept that Picasso succeeded in integrating in his
works. Cézanne was the first to reproduce the perspective in his
artworks by modifying the plans. Picasso integrated this notion in
his artworks, as we can see in one of his still lives where the
stand of the fruit dish is seen from the top whereas the plate is
seen from the face. The fruit dish is one of the elements that
Picasso took in the universe of Cézanne, just like the apple or the
chair.
The exhibition
is divided into four sections which tell a lot about this relation
between Picasso and Cézanne.
- Picasso
looks at Cézanne shows the influence
of Cézanne on Picasso by juxtaposing artworks of Cézanne and
Picasso.
- Picasso
collects Cézanne presents Cézanne’s
artworks acquired by Picasso.
- Shared
topics, objects, forms and traits
establishes a parallel between still lives and human figures of
Cézanne and Picasso. In this section we can really appreciate the
fact that Picasso uses the fruit dish of Cézanne and the apple that
he declines in various forms over his different painting “periods”.
The man leaning on his elbow is also a topic common to both
painters.
- Picasso
gets close to Cézanne presents
Picasso’s production during the two years he spent at the castle of
Vauvenargues which he acquired at the bottom of mount Sainte-Victoire
where Cézanne painted so often. As Picasso was saying, Cézanne
painted the Sainte-Victoire, I acquired it.
An artwork
acquired by Picasso is one of the three “bathers” painted by Cézanne
in his studio in Aix-en-Provence. Interesting story about these
paintings: Cézanne had to have an opening built on the total height
of one wall of his workshop to be able to carry out these artworks
of very large dimensions (3' x 6'). The studios of the time couldn’t
accommodate such large paintings. Cézanne worked on these paintings
for the last ten years of his life.
Another
interesting explanation that we had: the representation of a
character and a skull, or a candle, or a sand glass on a table means
that the artist thinks over death (and life)... we will not look at
Picasso’s still lives in the same way anymore.
Cézanne was
ahead of his time. Let us recall that he deceased in 1906. As it is
written in the book of the exhibition L’estampille /
L’objet d’art, Cézanne had “a taste for the
“geometrisation” of the forms, the exploitation of strong and very
expressive contrasts, the distortion of the perspective and this
strange tendency to let fall the foreground at the bottom of the
painting, as if it was taking an unstable balance” (Hors Série No 4,
p. 22). Yes, we are talking about Cézanne here, a Cézanne proscribed
in its time. Did you know him this way?
We like both
Cézanne and Picasso, and it was fascinating to see that the last one
had been inspired by the other. Who would have believed so when
looking at Picasso’s work?
July 18, 2009 |
