No comments about Cezanne and America: Dealers, Collectors, Artists and Critics, 1891-1921 (A W Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts).

No comments about Cezanne: Father of 20th Century Art.

3 comments about Drawing From The Modern.

1. DRAWING from the MODERN is the first of a three part series published by MOMA as catalogue to accompany the chronologically arranged exhibitions of their drawing collection; in part, celebration of the seventy fifth anniversary of the founding of the Museum.
   
   This first book looks at the late nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. Care and preservation of these drawings dictate that they are displayed infrequently, paper being a delicate medium, subject to fading, discoloration and brittleness. The publication of this series then allows us to have at hand a history of drawings seldom seen, and a visual education demonstrating how problems of that era both evolved and worked themselves out.
   
   The introduction by Jodi Hauptman is broad and well worth reading. Aside from her entertaining "end of art" stories, she addresses artists and process leading to the dissolution of prevalent notions: relationship of "mark" to "ground", took new form; spatial notions of an orderly page, questioned; the element of chance, explored as process; the ego relationship of an artist to work, dissolving. New imagery happened: collage, abstraction, grids, enhanced emotions, metaphors of feeling, the sublime re-imaged. New subjects explored brutalities of war, notions of "city", identity, the spiritual, and the abstract.
   
   As perhaps with all process of art, the uncertainty of change brought forth much that is new. The 139 plates of drawings both demonstrate and give testimony by leading artists of the time to new era in process. Drawing as subject matter is fascinating. To be expected, the book is well printed. Of course, what is book one without book two and three?
   
   Nancy Gutrich



2. This is not a good artbook. The images are way too small to be satisfying. This book could have been great, but falls way short of its potential. Don't buy it, you will be disappointed.



3. I purchased book 1 & 2 from Amazon. The illustrations are far too small to be a professionally represented art book from MOMA I've decided to save my money rather than pay out for the 3rd edition. It sounds a good buy from its description but I don't consider this trilogy to be very satisfactory.

1 comments about Cezanne: Visions of A Great Painter.

1. As this book will prove to anyone who doubts it, Paul Cezanne is definitely the Father of Modern Art. Of course, that is ironic because Cezanne was said to be against many of the principles of modern art.

   That said, this book is a wonderful source for art history lovers like me. There are many beautiful reproductions of paintings in this book, spanning Cezanne's entire career, that are ALL IN COLOR. And that makes the book quite a gem on its own account. However, not only are the paintings in color, but also since this is a tall, wide book, the paintings take up a page, even a whole page, if need be. The book also explores Cezanne's personality--how it affected his art, as well as his life. It is not serious reading, by it will enable one to better appreciate his art more. This book, despite only being $..., is priceless. It will probably be worth much more in coming years. There is no excuse not to buy this book if you love art history--I know you'll enjoy it immensely!!!

No comments about Paul Cezanne, Two Sketchbooks: The Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

1 comments about Paul Cezanne: Finished - Unfinished.

1. This book probably deserves 3 1/2 stars but since I've got to go with round numbers I'd say 3 is closer to the truth than 4. I may have been influenced by the fact that I have read an awful lot of stuff on Cezanne, but I don't think so. This book was put out to coincide with an exhibition that has "finished/unfinished" as its theme i.e.-when is a painting truly "complete". The idea wears a bit thin after 400 pages. The book starts off with essays by about 5-6 people that take up the first 120 pages. The last couple of essays are interesting and contain some good ideas but the first several essays pretty much say the same thing over and over (many of Cezanne's paintings that were not actually finished are "complete" from an artistic standpoint) and if a couple of these essays had been left out no harm would have been done. The same point is hammered home in too many of the "mini-essays" that accompany each painting and sometimes the contributors get a bit carried away in seeing genius and "completion" in even the works that are clearly failures not only by Cezanne's own standards but also, I think, by the standards of the intelligent layperson and probably also of many art historians. The book does get high marks, though, for many high quality color reproductions and the Cezanne lover will be sure to find his/her favorite genre well-represented. You get many portraits as well as landscapes and those luscious still-lifes (my particular favorite). One of the interesting ideas contained in the book is that the reason the still-life seems to be the category where Cezanne really excelled is that the subject was the one best suited to his temperament. He was an extremely slow worker and did not like changes in the "motif". For example, he did not like it when human sitters would move and he did not like changes in the weather and in light conditions as the changes would make him rethink what he was doing and oftimes start over or have to make corrections. With the still-life Cezanne could arrange things just the way he wanted and could use artificial flowers that would not wither as he worked, etc. Also note that the book contains many works in watercolor, which is a medium that Cezanne excelled in. If you are not familiar with his watercolors I think you will be pleasantly surprised...

No comments about Cezanne Paintings: 24 Full-Color Cards (Card Books).

1 comments about Cezanne.

1. As an art student Paul Cezanne became the paragon upon which I measured all other subsequent painters. The writer that taught me to see him as the North Star in that vast, swirling sky of artists was Meyer Schapiro. Having read the above book literally a dozen or more times I have found that it is an inexhaustible treasure. Mr. Schapiro's insights are both scholarly and poetic. He above all seems to understand that Cezanne, while instrumental as a precursor to cubism, was first and foremost a great individual artist. Going to the Cezanne retrospective in Philadelphia several years ago I remember the first thing that came to my mind was how right Mr. Schapiro had been to avoid all the fussy and downright foolish connections that other critics are constantly making between Cezanne and modern art. What Mr. Schapiro concentrates on rather is Cézannes paintings and not his influence - this is most refreshing. He above all others I have read seems to have an uncanny understanding of Cezanne as both a man and an artist. He writes that Cézanne's; "...detached contemplation of his subjects arises from a passionate aspiring nature that seeks to master its own impulses through an objective attitude to things." I can only think that this must be true of Mr. Schapiro also. Each sentence is laid down with the care that Cezanne put into laying down each stroke of paint and as such his writing possesses a gravity that I have never found in another critic's work with the exception of Roger Fry. The beginning of the book provides a comprehensive overview of Cézanne's work and a brief outline of his life but the final 3/4 quarters of the book is structured as follows: superb color reproduction on the right hand page and a few paragraphs of commentary on the left page. These enables one to simply open it at any given time, find a desirable painting and read the commentary directly next to it. Structure in this way, the book became for me a source to meditate upon the good in art when I was surrounded by the confusion of trying to find myself among other young artists. Not being a scholar I found this book to be accessible and enriching. Mr. Schapiro writes with such sincere warmth and wisdom that when I heard of his death a few years ago I was saddened as if I had lost a friend and mentor. I hope this wonderful book brings as much joy and inspiration to you as it has for me.

1 comments about C's Aesthetics: Philosophy In The Painting.

1. Even though the author has a highly readable concise
   style with a lively pace that does not waste my time,
   and the book is quite excellent in detail and thoroughness
   of research--and the points he makes all very interesting --
   this book will more likely satisfy a like-minded art historian
   or philosopher of aesthetics--but for a practicing painter
   something does not quite click into satisfaction in the end.

No comments about Cezanne's Garden.