Cezanne and the Dawn of Modern Art

Cezanne and the Dawn of Modern Art presents selected paintings by Paul Cazanne alongside works by younger artists that reveal the powerful influence of the man hailed as the founder of modern painting. The driving forces in the reception of Cezanne's art were not art critics, art historians, or even the artist himself, but rather other artists--primarily the Fauves led by Matisse, de Vlaminck, and Derain; and the Cubists including Picasso, Braque, and Leger--all of whom absorbed and elaborated on Cezanne's revolutionary ideas about color and composition. Against this background of Cezannisme, the book presents key works by Cezanne and younger artists in revealing juxtapositions. Readers will discover analogies and variations between the works of the "father of modern art" and those of his successors in a series of related motifs--portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. This volume is, indeed, a compact history of the icons of modern art. It offers new insight into one of modern art's most complex artists, traces the influence of Cezanne's work on a succeeding generation of 20th-century artists, and examines tendencies in Cezanne's art that paved the way for both the Fauve and Cubist movements.