I was painting in my studio when the Amazon delivery arrived. I had been tracking it and expected it so it was no surprise but I couldn’t wait to pop it open. I hadn’t stopped thinking about the Madame Cezanne show since we saw it last month at the Metropolitan where it is up for another week.
The first pages I laid my eyes on were in the center of the book and they were all photos of Matisse paintings, a serious student of Cézanne. In fact there was a photo Matisse in his living room in front of one of the Madame Cézanne portraits from the show. Matisse owned it!
About painting Cézanne said, “The artist must perceive and capture harmony from among the many relationships. He must transpose them in a scale of his own invention while he develops them according to a new and original logic. Charlotte Hale, in an essay from the book entitled, “A Template for Experimentation,” says the Madame Cezanne paintings “are quietly explosive paintings about painting.” And that is exactly right on.
Cézanne invents ways to create spacial relationships. Cézanne is a saint.
Leave a comment