Come experience the Independent Hotel and the remarkable works of Paul Cézanne at the Philadelphia Art Museum February 26, 2009 - May 31, 2009. The Independent Hotel is just a few short blocks from this historical Philadelphia Museum.
Paul Cézanne’s posthumous retrospective at the Salon d’Automne in 1907 was a watershed event in the history of art. The immediate impact of this large presentation of his work on the young artists of Paris was profound. Its ramifications on successive generations down to the present are still in effect.
This exhibition features forty paintings and twenty watercolors and drawings by Cézanne, displayed alongside works by several artists for whom Cézanne has been a central inspiration and whose work reflects, both visually and poetically, Cézanne’s extraordinary legacy.
Based on the remarkable resources of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, both in its holdings of major works by Cézanne and in its large collections of early modernist works—thanks to A. E. Gallatin and Louise and Walter Arensberg—this show is a unique occasion to experience the continuing impact of this influential painter.
Francis Alÿs (Belgian, born 1959)
“I remember blaming Cézanne (or was it that I blessed him) for having saved me from having to deal with the enigma of painting.”
Max Beckmann (German, 1884–1950)
“Cézanne was my greatest love and still is when I think of French art.”
Georges Braque (French, 1882–1963)
“To my way of thinking, there is no master equal to Cézanne.”
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906)
“In my thought one doesn’t replace the past, one only adds a new link to it.”
Charles Demuth (American, 1883–1935)
“John Marin and I drew our inspiration from the same source, French modernism. He brought his up in buckets and spilt much along the way. I dipped mine out with a teaspoon, but I never spilled a drop.”
Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901–1966)
“Cézanne did not … seek to be original. And yet there is no painter so original as Cézanne.”
Arshile Gorky (American, born Armenia, 1904–1948)
“Cézanne is the greatest artist, shall I say, that has lived.”
Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943)
“[Cézanne had] ideas that were to make the world of painting over again.”
Jasper Johns (American, born 1930)
“As for the Cézanne [Bather], it has a synesthetic quality that gives it great sensuality—it makes looking equivalent to touching
Ellsworth Kelly (American, born 1923)
“Cézanne tackled and conceptualized the three-dimensional world in terms of its underlying structure and our uncertain relationships to it.”
Fernand Léger (French, 1881–1955)
“[Cézanne’s] influence was so strong that in order to free myself I had to move all the way to abstraction.”
Sherrie Levine (American, born 1947)
“I engage the idea of removing the artist completely from the artwork, so that it becomes a kind of group project with audience participation.”
Brice Marden (American, born 1938)
“Cézanne, my hero.”
Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954)
“I thought: If Cézanne is right, I am right. Because I knew Cézanne had made no mistake.”
Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872–1944)
“Beauty in art is created not by the objects of representation but by the relationships of line and color (Cézanne).”
Giorgio Morandi (Italian, 1890–1964)
“We sat down around the big table and talked about art,” John Rewald recalled, “not so much about his [Morandi’s] as about the masters he admired, above all Cézanne and Seurat.”
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973)
“[Cézanne] was my one and only master! Don’t you think I looked at his pictures?”
Liubov Popova (Russian, 1889–1924)
“Cézanne no longer depicted the impression of the object, but only its essence.”
Jeff Wall (Canadian, born 1946)
“I have always admired Cézanne.”
This fall, October 2nd - December 31, 2009, the National Constitution Center will feature its newest exhibition, Diana: A Celebration. This exhibition comes to Philadelphia for the first time, showcasing the life and work of the Princess of Wales.
