Cezanne et nous

“Cézanne And Us” is the first exhibition to tell a story in two parts, from the 1880s to today: the story of his fundamental influence and the reverse narrative of artists who claimed to be inspired by him and made him “the father of us all”, in the words of Picasso. 

“Cézanne And Us” therefore speaks to both the “us” of the artists and the “us” of the viewers, looking at Cézanne through them.

The exhibition tells the story of an unparalleled legacy, one that unfolds through an interplay of influence and the assertion of a shared master, starting with his first followers: in the 1880s and 1890s, at a time when Cézanne was weary of failure and no longer seeking to exhibit, a few painters discovered his work in Père Tanguy’s shop, to their astonishment. His radical form encouraged them in their search for art that was “pure” and already heading towards abstraction.

It then addresses key moments in the artist’s rise to prominence, starting by highlighting the importance of art dealer Ambroise Vollard, through both his immense collection and the first exhibitions that he devoted to the artist between 1895 and 1906. The first museum acquisitions, the posthumous exhibition at the 1907 Salon d’Automne and major international exhibitions in the 1910s are also featured.
The exhibition shows the many ways in which Cézanne’s work was received by the international and European avant garde movements of the 1910s, which all questioned the relationship between artwork and reality and reflected, like Cézanne, on the idea that “art is a harmony parallel with nature”.

This rich and varied reception from the very beginning is the central theme of the exhibition. It shows how, starting with Cézanne, the triumph of modern art and that of the formalism associated with it – the reduction of painting to the fundamental elements of its composition – are constantly being worked on or surpassed.

The artist became one of the uncontested fathers of Western modern art. In the post-war period, he was still regarded by figures driving a revival of abstraction in Europe and the United States, whether proponents of lyrical and optical abstraction or of hard-edge painting. It is this nuanced history, in which each defends their own version of Cézanne just as much as the path they are themselves exploring, that is presented here. It asks what has become of him in the post-modern era that is challenging his mythical position.