artist who decided the direction of lines,
the color of objects and what could be
left out—an enormous part of composing
pictures. Cézanne made lines and shapes
relate to each other and to the flatness of
the canvas. His pictures became less and
less representations of the known world
as much as they referred to themselves as
works of art. This attitude toward art led in
a straight line to the advanced modernism
of Matisse and Picasso and, arguably, every
modern art movement after them. No
avant-garde movement exists that can’t be
traced back in some way to Cézanne.
Cézanne’s Trees and Rocks Near the Chateau
Noir is a scheme of diagonals that evokes
agitated movement despite the simple and
ostensibly still subject matter of trees and
rocks. The trees shimmer with patches of
color that shift in value and intensity and
evoke powerful movement and change.
Looking at a Cézanne, the eye quickly goes
from the overall scene to segments of color
that serve to break that scene apart and
emphasize the surface of the canvas instead.
A painting by Cézanne is an internal
organization that relates to itself as a work
of art more than it relates to the observed
world. For Cézanne, art eventually comes
first, nature second. It is this position,
radical in the nineteenth century, that
makes Cézanne the father of modernism.
Standing on the shoulders of Cézanne,
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque changed
the course of modern art with their joint
invention of Cubism. Braque is represented
in this show not with a Cubist painting,
but with a still life, Pot of Anemones, which
reveals how liberated painting had become
by the 1920s. The artist no longer needed
to feel constrained at all to faithfully record
what he or she saw. Braque’s painting is
a mix of arbitrary color: the white wall
in the background and the white of the
pot are the same, while the anemones are
flat against a distorted black outline. It is
the overall intelligence of the design that
4
columbiamuseum.org
Georges Seurat, French, 1859–1891, The Picnic, c. 1885, oil on panel, Collection of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens
Gift of Montgomery H.W. Ritchie and museum purchase in 1996.
moves Braque, not the goal of accurate
transcription. An Impressionist would look
more closely at the actual colors present in
the still life being depicted, but Braque uses
the still life as a mere point of departure for
his own orchestration of color.
Exhibition Presented By:
Lastly, what could a work of art like
Marc Chagall’s Dreamer have to do
with Impressionism? With figures flying
through a field of blue over a huge fruit
basket, this painting is clearly a symbolist
painting. It uses symbols to represent
complex emotions. It may seem odd that
such a painting is included in a show
entitled Impressionism from Monet to
Matisse, a title that suggests galleries full
of only Impressionism. And yet, there is
an overarching rationale at work in the
show that the Dixon Galleries and Gardens
has expertly organized. That color, light
and atmosphere be liberated from the
stranglehold of photographic transcription
is that the legacy of the Impressionists, and
it is echoed throughout the 20th century in
a variety of ways. This gorgeous exhibition
allows us to see that and more. n
Dr. Suzan D. Boyd and Mr. M. Edward Sellers
Helen and John Hill
Impressionism From Monet to Matisse will be
on view January 25 - April 21. Organized
by the Dixon Gallery and Gardens.
Supporting Sponsors:
Contributing Sponsors:
Family Medicine Centers of
South Carolina, P.A.
Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A.
Pierrine and Hootie Johnson Fund of
the Central Carolina Community
Foundation
Smith Family Foundation
Colonial Life
Columbia Marriott
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