We take a closer look at what critics have had to say about the Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition.
The Guardian: ***** “The beautiful, touching thing about this artist is how he takes apart reality without ever ceasing to care about it. This makes looking at his art one of the most heightened and extraordinary experiences you can have in a gallery – or anywhere.”
The Independent: ***** “Tate Modern’s major new exhibition might be missing some of the painter’s early works, but it’s still a must-see.”
iNews: ***** “Born in 1839, Cézanne is hardly standard fare for Tate Modern, an art museum of the 20th and 21st centuries. As with their revelatory Rodin show last year, the rationale here is that Cézanne played a foundational role in the story of modern art: he paved the way for Cubism, and new ways of seeing.”
Time Out: ***** “The impressionists painted light, but Cezanne – like Gustave Courbet before him – painted ideas. It’s conceptualism long before Duchamp, explosive cubism long before Picasso, pop culture and flesh and weird gloopy paint long before anyone else.”
Evening Standard: ***** “This exhibition is emphatically worth visiting (but when it’s over don’t forget the Cezannes in the Courtauld collection, just over Waterloo Bridge), simply because it is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of the painters’ painter in London for over 30 years, and therefore merits attention. Moreover, there is no comparison between the luminous intensity and power of these paintings on canvas and digital reproductions.”
The Telegraph: ***** “Tate Modern’s note-perfect new survey of the French pioneer strips away the received wisdom about him and invites us to consider him afresh.”
The Times: ***** “For full impact, try going straight to a gallery hung with his pictures of bathers. Mythological classics meet the gods of modernism. The eye is swept up into a heady swell.”
The Upcoming: ***** “Cezanne is a large, ambitious and beautifully curated collection of the painter’s work. A must-see for art historians and artists alike, this exhibition also gives the general public a broad and intimate understanding of Cezanne in the context of his time, his changing style and the depth with which you can view his work.”
London Visitors: “This fascinating and comprehensive exhibition challenges the idea that Cezanne was a solitary figure by considering his relationships with family, friends and fellow artists. The exhibition suggests that Cezanne did not want to be constrained by belonging to a group or school of art and he understood the importance of developing your own style and experimenting with materials and techniques.”
The Tate Modern‘s Cezanne exhibition is on display until the 12th March 2023.