Cezanne’s Legacy

The importance of Paul Cézanne as an influence on modern painters is summed up by Picasso’s statement that he was “the father of us all.” Today, the Philadelphia Museum of Art opens their new exhibition “Cézanne & Beyond,” which features 40 paintings and 20 watercolors and
drawings by Cézanne, along with works by artists for
whom Cézanne has been a central inspiration—artists like Jasper Johns, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picaso. It runs though May 17.

This morning, on my dirve to work, I heard NPR’s special correspondent Susan Stamberg’s report on the exhibition for “Morning Edition.” Listen to her conversation with the exhibition curators and with Cézanne “disciples” Ellsworth Kelly, the 86-year-old minimalist painter and sculptor, and Canadian photographer Jeffrey Wall, on the NPR website.

Pictured here, courtesy of The Philadelphia Museum of Art:

Paul Cézanne, (French, 1839 – 1906), Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair, 1877. Oil on canvas, 28 ? x 22 inches. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Bequest of Robert Treat Paine, II.

Paul Cézanne, (French, 1839 – 1906), The Bay of Marseille, Seen from L’Estaque, c. 1885. Oil on canvas, 31 5/8 x 39 5/8 inches. The Art Institute of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection, 1933.