Cezanne and Beyond
Paul Cezanne said, “With an apple I will astonish Paris.” In the spring of 2009, he has astonished Philadelphia. A week ago more than 15 students, fellow professor Brenda Ebersole, her husband, and I traveled on the R3 to Center City and spent an Art After Dark evening at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We left the Langhorne Manor train station with the intention of trying to understand Cezanne’s impact on modernism in art. I think we all returned with a deeper comprehension and appreciation.
At the exhibit, Cezanne’s canvasses were displayed side by side with those of Pablo Picasso, Elsworth Kelly, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee, and Jasper Johns, among others. After touring the special exhibit (shown only in Philadelphia), we each enjoyed a sampling of other Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and Abstract Expressionists from the permanent collection before we were drawn into the jazz piano concert in the main entrance.
After leaving the museum we walked to the Whole Foods Market located behind the Rodin Museum and shared a quick dinner of one another’s purchases. Later, we walked back via the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and past Logan Square and Love Park, two Philadelphia landmarks. The spring blossoms and mild weather showed the city of Philadelphia to its advantage.
In her book Cezanne and Modernism: The Poetics of Painting Joyce Medina writes, “Picasso, for example, expressed his appreciation of the artist by proclaiming him 'the father of us all,' and Paul Klee called him 'the teacher par excellence.' The trip to the Cezanne exhibit was eye opening for each of us.
