Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Dunes Close to Domburg, 1910, oil on canvas, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Apple Tree in Flower, 1912, oil on canvas, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Desnudo sobre un divan (Nude on a Divan), 1960, oil on canvas, 89 x 115,5 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Still Life with Large Wine Bottle, 1959, oil on canvas, 89 x 116 cm, National Modern Art Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Flawed Vase, Sugar Bowl and Apples, 1890-1893, oil on canvas, Musée National de l'Orangerie, collection Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume, Paris.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Maison Maria with a view of Château Noir, c. 1895, oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm, Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), La Montagne Sainte-Victoire, 1888, oil on canvas, 83 x 72 cm, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Purchased with the generous support of the VVHK. |
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Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
Stadhouderslaan 41
31-(0)70-3381111
Den Haag
Cézanne – Picasso – Mondrian
A new perspective
October 17, 2009-January 24, 2010
Cézanne is considered the "father of modern art." Ironically, the painter who frequently found himself turned down for the Paris salons is now regarded as one of the most important artists of his day. Picasso and Mondrian followed his lead and the three of them were responsible for perhaps the most decisive development in art history: the inception of abstract art. The exhibits reveal in spectacular fashion how advances in painting suddenly gathered pace around 1900. The result is a thrilling story that takes the viewer from the sumptuous palette of Cézanne via the brilliantly coloured — and sometimes humorous — paintings of Picasso to the extremely subtle compositions of Mondrian.
No other artist of the late 19th century had a heavier and more lasting influence on his successors than Paul Cézanne: with his subtle sense of colour and daring compositions, he broke a lance for future generations. Now, for the first time in half a century, paintings by the French master are once again be on show in the Netherlands. They include the sensual, world-famous Bathers and the Provençal landscapes featuring Mont Sainte-Victoire, near the small village of Vauvenargues.
From the time he arrived in Paris, when he was barely twenty, right to the end of his life, Pablo Picasso hugely admired Cézanne. He liked to regard himself as the older man’s (artistic) heir and was so keen to follow in his footsteps that he eventually took up residence in the Château de Vauvenargues, at the very foot of Mont Sainte-Victoire. He wanted not just to follow in Cézanne’s footsteps in an artistic sense, but actually to occupy the same physical landscape as him. Later still, it was there that Picasso was interred after his death in 1973.
Mondrian’s quest for the ideal work of art was virtually concurrent with Picasso’s experiments. Although he emerged from the Dutch tradition at a time when the Hague School was the height of fashion, he had been interested in international developments in painting from an early age. His earliest ideas about Cubism were derived from the press. It took an exhibition about Cubism held in the Stedelijk Museum in 1911 to open his eyes once and for all. It was only then that he saw what Cubism was really about and that he discovered the line that began with Cézanne and continued through Picasso’s work. Mondrian decided to visit Paris to witness contemporary developments in art at first hand. What he saw there took him a step closer to the essence of colour and form. This is the first time that Mondrian’s relationship with Picasso and Cézanne is examined in such detail.
The Gemeentemuseum offers a unique insight into the evolution of modern Western art — an evolution in which each of these three great painters played a pioneering role. With outstanding items on loan from around the world — from Washington (The National Gallery of Art), New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art) and Paris (Centre Georges Pompidou) — this promises to be a show of exceptional quality.
The exhibition is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue containing contributions (in Dutch) by Elizabeth Cowling, Hans Janssen, Franz-W. Kaiser, Brigitte Leal, Sylvie Patin, Anne Roquebert and Benno Tempel.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Two Standing Female Nudes, 1908, oil on marouflaged cardboard, 41 x 33 cm, private collection.
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), The Large Nude, 1912, oil on canvas, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Composition Trees 2, 1912-1913, oil on canvas, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Harlequin, 1888-1890, oil on canvas, 101 x 65 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Harlequin, Céret, 1913, oil on canvas, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. |
