Paul Cezanne: The Father of Modern Art
"I have perhaps come too early," an aging Paul Cezanne once told a young
artist. "I was the painter of your generation more than my own." Cezanne's
work didn't become well-known until just before his death in 1906. However,
his unique painting style was already influencing the new generation of paint-
ing style was already influencing the new generation of painters.
In his early "romantic" period, this Frenchman was painting strange pictures
in dark colors. In the early 1870's, he began painting in the style of the
impressionists. They wanted to paint exactly what they saw at a certain moment
: the sunlight falling on the leaves of a tree, or on the bare arm of a lady
walking in the park. You think trees have green leaves? Now take a look: The
light makes them look red or blue. This is the impression we get just at this
moment.
But Cezanne later gave up impressionism and began looking for something
deeper,something beneath the surface. During his "constructive" period in the
late 1870's, Cezanne started painting landscapes and indoor scenes in a way
that showed the solid mass of real objects, and the relationship between
different forms.
People don't usually think of a table as having a certain shape, like round
or square. But if we look at things more "abstractly, "they all have geometri-
cal shapes. Cezanne felt that he could come closer to the reality of nature
itself by painting the basic forms of objects, and using thick brushstrokes to
show their weight.
Take"Card Players" for example. The table and wine bottle are uneven. But
the pictere is balanced by the two men's back, which curve upwards like the
walls of a church. The dark-brown table, wine bottle, and background look
solid and beavey, but the white pipe, cards, and shirt bring a balanced order
to the painting. This no quickly passing moment; it neveals the basic form of
what we see.
In his final years, Cezanne lived alone in southern France. He was truly an
artist's artist," who lived not for money, but only for the perfection of
artictic form. He would often gaze at an apple for hoers, and then paint it in
many different ways. For Cezanne, it was like a laboratory experiment:step by
step, we approach the truth.
In the late 1890's, Cezanne painted his best-known work, "Apples and Oranges
."In the painting, the fruit tumbles out of a bowl and onto a white tablecloth
and napkin. Its movement seems so real that you almost want to reach out and
catch the fruit before it rolls off of the table! The fruit's rich layers of
red-brown color give it a sense of weight, which stops it from tumbling off of
the white tablecloth. Beneath this action lies a solid shape: The bowl looks
almost like the head of an angel, and the white napkin and tablecloth are its
flapping wings.
Cezanne's paintings may seem more difficult to understand than those of Van
Gogh of Gauguin. In his own life, Cezanne was also calmer. He never cut off
his ear like Van Gogh, or suddenly left his family and moved to Tahiti, like
Gauguin.
Pablo Picasso, whose works greatly influenced 20th century abstract painting
, called Cezanne his "one and only master." In fact, artists and art lovers
everywhere appreciate Cezanne, the shy painter now known as"The father of
modern art."
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塞尚:現代藝術之父
年老的塞尚曾對一位年輕的藝術家說道:我或許太早出世了.我的作品比較屬於你們這一
代.塞尚的作品直到他於1906年去世之前,才受到重視.然而,他獨特的繪畫風格在當時已經
影響了新一代的畫家.
這位法國畫家在最初的浪漫時期作品中,以陰暗的色調畫出詭譎的圖像.1870年年初,他
開始以印象派的風格作畫.印象派畫家捕捉的是某個瞬間的景象:陽光灑落在樹葉,或是在
公園散步的女郎裸露手臂上的光影.你以為樹葉是綠色的?你在瞧瞧:陽光使樹葉看起來有
紅有藍.這就是我們瞬間的印象.
不過塞尚後來放棄了印象派畫風,開始尋找更深層,表象之下的內涵.1870年後期,也就是
他的"建構時期", 塞尚開始以風景與室內擺設為繪畫主題,呈現出真實物體的堅固質量,
和不同型體間的關係.
一般人不太注意桌子具有某種特定的形狀,例如圓形或方形.但如果我們以更抽象的方式
看待物體,他們幾乎全都有幾何圖形.塞尚認為,如果他能畫出物體的基本型態,並用厚重
的筆觸呈現物體的重量,他就能更接近大自然本身了.
以玩牌者這幅畫為例,畫中,桌子和酒瓶是歪斜的.但是兩個男人的背卻平衡了這個歪斜
,男人拱起的背就像是教堂的牆壁.暗棕色的桌子.酒瓶和背景看起來結實厚重,但白色的
煙斗.撲克牌.襯衫則為整幅畫營造出一種均衡的秩序感.這並不是稍縱即逝的瞬間,而是顯
示出我們眼中物體的基本型態.
塞尚晚年獨自隱居法國南部.他是絕對的藝術家,他的生命不為錢財,而是為藝術的完美
而活.他常會凝視一顆蘋果好幾個小時,然後以許多不同的觀點來畫這顆蘋果.對塞尚來說
,這就像作實驗:逐步接近真理.
1890年後期,塞尚完成了他最著名的畫作"蘋果與橘子".畫中,水果從碗裡滾了出來,落在
白色的桌巾和餐巾上.水果的動作如此真實,你甚至想伸出手來,在水果滾落桌子前接住.
水果一層層飽滿的紅棕色呈現一種重量感,使其不會從白色桌巾上掉下來.在這動作下有一
個堅固的形狀,那只碗看起來幾乎向一個天使的頭,而白色的餐巾和桌巾則是天使拍動的羽
翼.
塞尚的畫作或許比梵谷或高更更難以理解.在塞尚的生活裡,他也比較平靜,不像梵谷那밊樣割耳,或是像高更那樣忽然離家,搬往大溪地.
影響二十世紀抽象畫的畢卡索稱塞尚是他唯一的老師.其實,在各地的藝術家和藝術愛好
者都很崇敬賽尚,這位害羞的畫家,就是現在大家熟知的"現代藝術之父".
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