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Pablo Picasso said it all in a letter to the photographer Brassai in 1943. “Cezanne was my only teacher! You can tell that I saw his pictures–I studied his paintings for many years. Cezanne is like a father to all of us. He protected us.”

The last two sentences of this quote are the first thing we see before entering the exhibition Homage to Cezanne: His Influence on the Development of Twentieth Century Painting at the Yokohama Museum of Art.

“Homage to Cezanne” is also the title of many paintings done since Paul Cezanne’s death in 1906–such as the one by French painter Emile Bernard that we see in the first gallery of the exhibition. Bernard was a friend and one of the first great admirers of Cezanne. The retrospective exhibition of Cezanne’s work organized at the Salon d’Automne in Paris the year after the artist’s death and the definitive essay about the artist and his work by Bernard published at the same time, would cement Cezanne’s reputation and hasten his profound effect on the course of 20th-century European art.

As this quote by Picasso and the homage paid by Bernard and so many later artists profess, the expression “a painter’s painter” probably fits no artist better than Paul Cezanne (1839-1906). And, while he was an inspiration to these artists, he was also a profound problem. It is often said that every great painter of the 20th century had to first of all find their peace with Cezanne. Picasso admitted to the fact that his study of Cezanne’s works led to the birth of Cubism. And Cezanne’s influence on the other major movements in early 20th-century painting–the Fauvism of Matisse and Vlaminck, the Nabis (Bernard, Maurice Denis), and later “Ecole de Paris” painters such as Modigliani–but in each case that influence came out in very different forms.

Denis expressed this puzzling complexity of Cezanne’s influence in an essay titled “Theories 1890-1910.”

“There is something paradoxical about Cezanne’s celebrity; and it is scarcely easier to explain than to explain Cezanne himself. I have never heard an admirer of Cezanne give me a clear and precise reason for his admiration; and it is true even among artists who feel most directly the appeal of Cezanne’s art. I have heard the words–quality, flavor, importance, interest, classicism, beauty, style. But how hard it is to be precise about Cezanne,” Denis wrote.

Eventually, Bernard coined the term Cezannisme (Cezannism in English) to refer to the pervasive but complex art and influence of Cezanne, and that all-inclusive word is used for the Japanese title of this exhibition.

Of course it was not only European artists who had to deal with the problem and the love of Cezanne. In fact, this exhibition at the Yokohama Museum of Art is in equal parts an exploration of the influence of Cezannisme on European and Japanese artists of the first half of the 20th century. In all, there are 51 oil paintings, watercolors and drawings by Cezanne among the 145 works in this exhibition, with many of the oils coming from Japanese collections. Another 39 works are by European artists including Gauguin, Picasso, Matisse, Bernard, Denis, Braque, Vlaminck, Chagall and Modigliani, while the remaining 53 works are by Japanese artists influenced by Cezanne.

The Japanese interest in and appreciation of the work of Cezanne actually began quite early on. Sotaro Yasui (1888-1929), who would become one of the prominent Japanese artists working in “Western-style oil painting” (yoga in Japanese) in the early decades of the 20th century, was studying in Europe from 1907 to 1914 and saw the first Cezanne retrospective at the Salon d’Automne (1907) as well as many Cezanne works in the collections of prominent collectors and artists of the day. For Yasui, Cezanne became the embodiment of modern art, and we see that influence in works by Yasui in all three sections of the Yokohama exhibition: Figures, Landscapes and Still Lifes.

Those Japanese artists who couldn’t make the long and costly journey to Europe learned about Cezanne and other European artists through publications such as the periodical Shirakaba, published by a group of artists and intellectuals who also collected donations to purchase some of the first Cezanne works to be brought to Japan. The Cezanne oil painting Landscape (1885-87) in this exhibition is one purchased in 1920 as a centerpiece for the Shirakaba Art Museum founded shortly afterward.

Some of the blatant copying of Cezanne technique seen in the Japanese works in this exhibition looks rather embarrassing from today’s perspective, but it also serves as an illuminating contrast to the truly substantial artists such as Yasui and Ryusei Kishida who would be inspired by Cezanne’s work to search beyond Impressionism to a more essential meaning for painting in the 20th century.

This exhibition offers a unique opportunity for viewers to search for their own explanation for the unadorned, unpretentious “rightness” of Cezanne’s paintings. I would also like to suggest a simple device for appreciating the magic of Cezanne that this exhibition affords us. Choose a wall in one of the galleries where a Cezanne painting hangs surrounded by works of his admirers hang–such as the wall in the final section of still life works where the paintings Apples and a Napkin (1879-80) or Still Life with Bottle (c. 1890) hang–and then move gradually back across the room from your normal viewing distance and see how the other paintings fade into themselves while the Cezanne remains strong and clear in image, even from the farthest limit of the gallery.

“Homage to Cezanne: His Influence on the Development of Twentieth Century Painting” until Jan. 25, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Closed Thursdays (except Dec. 25) and Jan. 1. Yokohama Museum of Art, a 3-minute walk from Minato Mirai Station on the Toyoko Line. Admission: 1,400 yen for adults, 1,100 yen for university and high school students, 800 yen for middle school students, free for elementary school students and younger. For further information, call (03) 6215-4406, or visit www.ntv.co.jp/cezanne/

Ticket giveaway

The Daily Yomiuri is giving away five pairs of tickets to “Homage to Cezanne: His Influence on the Development of Twentieth Century Painting.”

To enter, send a postcard telling us your thoughts on a recent DY Weekend article, your name, address and phone number, to The Daily Yomiuri, Cezanne Tickets, 1-7-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo 100-8055. You can also apply by sending an e-mail to DYWeekend@yomiuri.com with the same details, including “Cezanne” in the subject line.

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Cezanne's influence spanned continents ©2010 Oil Paintings Market News