Modern Western Art Theory

Author: Chip
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-01-01
Features: Our understanding of Paul Cézanne's artistic views is largely derived from a handful of private letters. He was a prolific letter-writer, and many of his letters have been preserved, but the topics he discussed in them—family matters, friends, and general issues—were far more numerous than his art. Even in his extensive correspondence with his childhood friend émile Zola, an active figure in the Parisian intellectual and art circles of the time, Cézanne mostly talked about personal affairs and Zola's novels. Aside from his own paintings, he rarely addressed anything else. In his letters to his close friend and mentor Camille Pissarro, he spent long passages discussing family disputes—those of the other person, and even his own—but rarely touched upon art theory.
Content: In 1904, while walking near Aix-en-Provence, I asked Cézanne about his views on the masters. "They are fine," he replied. "Every morning when I was in Paris, I would go to the Louvre. And I love nature more than they do. One must have one's own vision." "What do you mean by that?" "To create one's own perspective, to see nature with an eye that no one has ever used before. Wouldn't that result in an overly personal feeling, something others wouldn't understand? After all, isn't painting like speaking? When I speak, I use the language you use. If I invent a new, unknown language, would you understand me? To express new ideas in a common language might be the only way to make these ideas effective and be accepted by others."