Cézanne: Vollendet – Unvollendet

The story of Cézanne's fame and influence cannot be separated from his 'unfinished' works. Immediately after his death, these works were already held in high regard both by Matisse and the Fauves and by Picasso and the Cubists. With these works, Cézanne opened up the 20th century and pointed the way to the future, right up to abstract painting. Cézanne had the aim of renewing painting on the basis of classicism and establishing Impressionism so that it would be as firmly rooted and long-lasting as the art in museums. But no other artist has created so many 'unfinished' works. Examining paintings and watercolors, including the monumental still lifes and the late paintings from Montagne Saint Victoire, this book shows clearly that what is 'unfinished' in Cézanne's work is not a sketch, not a preparatory study. Comparisons of finished painted works with so-called 'unfinished' ones provide a completely new insight into the creative process of the "father of modernism". This makes it clearer than ever before what Cézanne meant by the gradual concretisation of color forms: We are witnesses of a step-by-step change of the world into painting. (English edition available ISBN 3-7757-0879-0) The artist: Paul Cézanne (Aix-en-Provence 1839-1906 Aix-en-Provence). After studying law in Aix he attended the Académie Suisse in Paris. He met the Impressionists through his boyhood friend, Emile Zola, and exhibited with them in 1874 and 1877. For a long time, Cézanne's paintings, which were invariably rejected by the Salon jury, were bought only by a few people. Because of this, from 1881 he lived mainly in seclusion in Aix-en-Provence. After his first big exhibition in Paris in 1895 he slowly gained a reputation among adherents of modern art.