Phoenix Art Museum

1625 North Central Avenue Phoenix, Arizona 85004

602-257-1222

Paul Cézanne influenced Cubism and the direction of 20th-Century modern art. However, relatively little comprehensive research has considered the specific impacts of Cézanne on the work of key American artists. Cézanne and American Modernism is the first exhibition to examine his influence upon the development of American modernism in this country and abroad. The exhibition includes a display of a dozen key paintings and works on paper by Cézanne. This gallery will recreate, in part, important exhibitions in which his work was introduced to American artists. These exhibitions were at Alfred Stieglitz’s renowned gallery 291 in 1910 and 1911, the Armory Show of 1913, the Montross Gallery in 1916, and at museums, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1920, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1921, and the Museum of Modern Art in 1929. Each piece, including works owned by Leo and Gertrude Stein, is selected for its relevance to the American artists whose work was changed by exposure to Cézanne’s innovative approach to painting. This presentation also includes copies of related books, portfolios, and exhibition catalogues of this era, materials that were in many cases owned by and certainly influenced American artists. The core of the exhibition focuses upon 75 paintings, works on paper and photographs by a diverse group of major American Modernists — among them Max Weber, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Morgan Russell, Man Ray and Arshile Gorky — to show how Americans from across the United States, including the Southwest, responded to Cézanne’s themes, process, and style. The primary emphasis is on the work of American artists, selected works by Cézanne are included to illustrate his impact on their work. For more information: www.phxart.org.