I won't speak about the Great Painter, since I haven't the right competences to do that, nor the interest in add something to all has been already written.
I'll talk about what I found there and what I learnt.
First of all, I must admit that I've found the will to go, despite the quite expensive ticket, only because I could use my brand-new "fidelity card" issued by the FAI, the Fondo Ambiente Italiano. This card allowed me to take advantage of the special reduction for the FAI members.
Then, I went there because I was very curious to see Cezanne not only on books or by Google. It was a (too) long time since I last saw a true one! Moreover, this summer I read a book on Francis Bacon, ONLY WORDS - NO IMAGES, that was amazing. It's "The logic of sensation" by Gilles Deleuze, talking of Bacon for half the book, and of Cezanne for the remaining half. I went crazy not being able to follow all the mentioned paintings, by both the Masters…
Even if I'll have to read that book at least other 6 times before understanding everything inside that, I well got the main message: No Cezanne, no Bacon (let's avoid all the possible culinary puns, for a while).
I loved the book, and that's why I really wanted to go deepened with my "aesthetically research".
It was a sudden decision going there. Once inside the rooms, I found quite a little exhibition compared to what I was expecting, but good - I suppose. Again, I'm not an expert, but the space was well organized following the different "ages" of Cezanne, demonstrating all the efforts he made in becoming what he was. It seemed like a effective summary of his career, with few but meaningful pieces.
The first paintings of the young Master, please excuse my childishness, where quite embarrassing. It was a kind of art nuveau mixed with the best advertising of the period. But considering that Mr Cezanne Father was against the artistic career of his son, Cezanne Junior did the best he could, basically learning by himself.
Then, there were macro-pictures of his studio near Aix-en-Provence, making you the feel like being inside the true one, no matter for the B/W colors. This section created a division between a certain "before and after". Passing "through the studio" you enter the section of the best Cezanne, the one of the Nature seen as nobody ever did before.
I loved all the portraits of his friends - I can bet they were very new for his contemporaries. There where also the still-life paintings, so physical but balanced, powerful.
As usual, it's all about colors: colors that makes everything, the world around us, the volumes and the surfaces. Always changing, nothing is immobile, even on Cezanne canvas.
And here there is a thing I really noticed and convinced me to write this review: have you ever looked at the frames of the drawings? I mean, the wooden ones, more or less decorated…
Frames always reflect the true age of a paint, far beyond the authors intentions.
Who decides the frames for a drawing? For sure Cezanne knew he was new, "futuristic", not understood by most of his contemporaries. He described himself as a painter of the next generation! So what's the problem?
I think is the following: look at the image.
(Taking pictures was forbidden, so I used my bad-quality phone to feel less guilty).
The fact that a revolutionary style as the one of Cezanne was framed by shells and flowers, I think it's amazing. It's true that Cezanne tried, for a long time, to be respected and accepted by the academicians, but there is surely a short-circuit in this juxtaposition. The frame is old, and Cezanne is new, too new for that.
And you know what? No matter the "framer", I think you can really understand Cezanne only if it is contained by that kind of gorgeous and flowered mounting.
The proof is in the following bad photo. It was a watercolor.
Is this still a Cezanne? For sure it is, but in my opinion, even if the frame could result more "apt" for the style (linear, simple, wooden and somehow cold) that mount weakens the painting.
The unbearable modernity of Cezanne, in my opinion, do need a old-style frivolous support.
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