Cézanne - Picasso - Mondriaan

Picasso picked up where Cézanne left off. Mondrian then went on to take a revolutionary step towards abstraction, based on the work of these predecessors, as will be revealed in the extraordinary exhibition Cézanne – Picasso – Mondrian. Unlike his impressionist contemporaries, Cézanne took as his basis the geometric essence of natural forms (cone, sphere and cylinder). In this and other ways he laid the foundations on which Picasso built further. The exhibition will also show that both Picasso and Cézanne were highly important factors in Mondrian’s development. The evolution from impressionism, via cubism, to abstraction – the creation of the foundations of modernism – will be visible in Cézanne – Picasso – Mondrian as never before.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) went to Paris in the late nineteenth century, where he met art dealer Ambroise Vollard. At that time, Vollard was already one of the leading gallerists of his generation, partly because of the major Cézanne retrospective he had organised in 1895. Although Cézanne (1839-1906) is regarded as an impressionist, he was not concerned with depicting fleeting impressions. His interest lay in the object itself, as he sought to penetrate to its core with his knowledge of form, composition and colour. It was this approach and other facets of his work that laid the first foundations of modern art.

Picasso was inspired by past masters, though always in a very immediate way, explicitly using individual paintings as his source. The influence of Cézanne, whom Picasso respectfully called Monsieur Cézanne, went much further, however. In 1958, Picasso even settled in Vauvernargues, at the foot of Monte Sainte-Victoire, which inspired at least sixty of Cézanne’s paintings. This literally gave him a view of Cézanne’s favourite landscape. The fact that Picasso picked up where Cézanne left off enhanced the art-historical significance of Cézanne’s work, which was last on show in the Netherlands in 1951 at an exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. He merged the Cézannesque style into cubism, based on the example of African sculpture. This led him to a revolutionary way of exposing the various faces of an object. The similarity of theme – bathers, card players, harlequins, apples, smokers – in the work of these two artists is striking.

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) discovered the work of Cézanne and Picasso at the influential exhibition staged by the Moderne Kunstkring in Amsterdam in 1911. Mondrian, whose exhibits included Dune V and Evolution, was particularly impressed by Cézanne’s work. This prompted him to visit Paris, where he saw the Cubist work of Picasso and realised what direction he should take. Thanks to the Gemeentemuseum’s comprehensive Mondrian collection, the exhibition will highlight both his Cubist work and the exciting development towards abstraction that followed.

A lavishly illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition, which will be staged in collaboration with Shell Netherlands B.V.

Cézanne - Picasso - Mondriaan
Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian