Positively Philadelphia: Cézanne, Showcased at the Barnes
By Lauren Lipton
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new exhibition begins June 22nd at the Barnes Foundation, on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
"This is a great quote from Cézanne: 'I want to astonish Paris with an apple.' And what I love about the statement is, it's a very ambitious aim to astonish with something quite modest," notes Judith Dolkart, deputy director of art and archival collections and Gund Family chief curator for the Barnes (at right in top photo).
The exhibition is titled The World Is an Apple: The Still Lifes of Paul Cézanne.
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"All around us we have little, smaller pictures or studies of apples, but here we have a presentation picture, 'Apples and Cakes,' where apples have been gathered into a compotier, and then you have this luscious set of pastries that even in the painting look delicious. This one is called 'The Kitchen Table,' a generous loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris "
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This select gathering of 21 paintings includes early to very late works—with themes ranging from apples and flowers to skulls.
"The Skulls on a Patterned Carpet [not shown] is one of the great paintings that he created -- very late work, truly Cézanne working through this anxiety about death," says Benedict Leca, director of curatorial affairs at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, where the exhibit makes its only other stop.
"Short of Paris, Philadelphia is essentially one of the epicenters of Cézanne studies," Leca (at left in top photo) says.
Hear the extended interview in this CBS Philly podcast (runs 11:12)...
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