Cezanne and his influence on the Cubist movement in art – Part 1

In order to understand Cezanne’s influence on the Cubist art movement, we must first understand the movement itself. Cubism was one of the most significant art movements of the twentieth century. It was the first truly “abstract” art style. Cubists rejected the traditional philosophy that art should copy nature. Instead of depicting subjects from one viewpoint or angle, Cubists, such as founders Pablo Picasso (October 25, 1881 April 8, 1973) and George Braque (May 13, 1882 August 31, 1963), chose to paint their subjects from multiple viewpoints at once, thus increasing the complexity of the painting. They reduced their subjects to basic geometric forms. Cezanne was the fist to comment that “Everything in nature takes its form from the sphere, the cone and the cylinder.” This idea formed the foundation for the Cubist movement.

Paul Cezanne (January 19, 1839 October 22, 1906) was a French Post-Impressionist painter. His work as an artist evolved through a number of periods. At the start of his career, his paintings were expressionistic in nature. They were dark and heavy. After being introduced to Camille Pissaro (July 10, 1830 November 13, 1903) and the Impressionists, his style became brighter and lighter. He liked the Impressionists techniques for rendering outdoor light, but was convinced something was missing. He began to introduce more of the forms of nature into his paintings and some critics believed Cezanne had discovered a way to both depict nature’s light and nature’s form, which the Impressionists had abandoned. Form is something he became obsessed with, insisting it was more important than the subject matter itself. This feat of expanding on Impressionism is what has categorized him as a Post-Impressionist and bridged the way to Cubism.

Cezanne was prone to studying the same subjects over and over again, varying his approach each time. In addition, the attention with which he recorded his observations of nature led to an intense exploration of binocular vision, which resulted in two slightly different visual perspectives at the same time, and provided us with depth perception and a better understanding of spatial relationships. Cezanne included this perception in his painting to varying degrees. He was compelled to render the outlines of forms so as to display the views of both the left and right eyes. This technique is something which will come to inspire the Cubist method of depicting a subject from several points of view at once. Cezanne insisted that art was not a copy of nature, but a parallel to it, another concept which will pave the way for the Cubist movement. He also recorded the variations in color observed over a long period as well as the basic geometric forms found in nature. This innovative technique influenced many young painters at the time, especially Picasso, who referred to Cezanne as “my one and only master: the father of us all.” This quote has led many to think of Cezanne as “the Father of Modern Art”. When you understand the influence he had on Cubism, and in turn, the influence of Cubism on the development of Modern Art, you realize how accurate a title this is.