Pub In The Park

Until May 23, 2010, the Museum of Baltimore Art is holding a spectacular exhibition on some of the best Paul Cezanne paintings available. “Cezanne and American Modernism” brings together sixteen of the French artist’s watercolors and paintings displayed alongside thirty American artists, such as Maurice Prendergast, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, and Marsden Hartley.

The exhibit demonstrates the influence Cezanne’s work has had on American Modernism. This special event brings together two of his greatest works, “Bathers” and “Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibemus Quarry,” with 80 paintings taken from both private and public collections. You’ll find work here from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and from the Art Institute of Chicago.

Cezanne, who lived from 1839 to 1906, is credited as a Post-Impressionist artist who led the art world from the 19th Century into the 20th Century, forming a bridge from the French Masters of Impressionism to Picasso’s Cubism. As Impressionism moved away from realistic depictions of human figures and nature, Cezanne advanced those lines even farther by treating nature as a collection of geometric shapes, with the trunks of trees being treated as if they were cylinders or fruit, such as apples or oranges, treated as if they were spheres.

Both Matisse and Picasso referred to Cezanne as their artistic father. Retrospectives, like the one at the Baltimore Art Museum, allow visitors to see this connection more clearly by placing his work side by side with the artists who inherited the world he created.

By checking into a great room in Baltimore , you can check out Cezanne and the other American artists, and have time later to explore the city of Baltimore, from its museums, its restaurants, and historic ships and landmarks, such as the USS Constellation and Fort McHenry, where the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner was written.

Related posts:

1. Sherburne Museum in Vermont
2. Art and Science at the MIT Museum of Boston