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Last Chance to See Cezanne Exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum

The Phoenix Art Museum’s exhibition Cézanne and American Modernism closes on September 26, 2010.

French master Paul Cézanne, one of the most recognizable names in art, is celebrated worldwide for his Post-Impressionist masterpieces. However, Cezanne’s greatest legacy may be the transformative effect his work had on 20th century artists.

Cézanne and American Modernism is the first exhibition to examine Cezanne’s influence on American artists working between 1900 and 1930 by bringing together 16 of the French master’s paintings and works on papers with more than 80 works by 33 American artists, including Marsden Hartley, Maurice Prendergast, Arshile Gorky, Alfred Stieglitz and Man Ray. The exhibition showcases outstanding works from public and private collections throughout the U.S., including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and works from Phoenix Art Museum’s permanent collection.

The transformative impact of Cézanne’s painting is vividly illustrated by the American artists’ adaptations of his stylistic hallmarks and subjects. Marsden Hartley was introduced to Cézanne’s work in 1911, moved to the south of France in 1925 to be closer to the native countryside of his mentor, and produced his own rugged and colorful modern landscapes. Cézanne’s powerful images of bathers in the landscape moved several artists, including Max Weber and Arthur B. Davies to pay homage in their compositions of the same topic. The French artist’s strong and powerful portraits, which treat sitters as if they were emotionless still lifes, motivated several artists to follow suit, including Stanton Macdonald-Wright who produce an image of his brother in a colorful and confident style that directly relates to a work by Cézanne. John Marin’s free-flowing watercolors, like those by Cézanne, are notable for their suggestive power, freshness, and immediacy. Artists Patrick Henry Bruce, Andrew Dasburg, Maurice Prendergast, Charles Demuth and others were inspired by Cézanne’s still-life compositions and variously reflect his affinity for vibrant, contrasting colors, titled table tops, multiple views, and complex structures.

Cézanne and American Modernism is presented by Phoenix Art Museum in the Museum’s Steele Gallery through September 26, 2010. The exhibition is organized by the Montclair Art Museum and The Baltimore Museum of Art and curated in Phoenix by Jerry Smith, curator of American and Western American art.

Image: Phoenix Art Museum Entrance

About Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix Art Museum is the Southwest’s premier destination for world-class visual arts. Popular international exhibitions are shown along side the Museum’s outstanding collection of more than 18,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. A community epicenter for fifty years, Phoenix Art Museum presents festivals, live performances, independent art films and educational programs that enlighten, entertain and stimulate. Visitors also enjoy PhxArtKids an interactive space for children, vibrant photography exhibitions through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, the lushly landscaped Sculpture Garden, dining at Arcadia Farms at Phoenix Art Museum, and shopping at The Museum Store.

To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit PhxArt.org, or call the 24-hour recorded information line at (602) 257-1222.

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