I Recommend "Cezanne and Beyond" in Philadelphia!
 

I was in Philly yesterday and I saw this show, which I strongly recommend.

I just looked up some reviews. The Telegraph review is really enthusiastic:

http://tinyurl.com/cla29g

"Let me just say that this is one of the most important shows I've seen in two decades of reviewing for this paper. Direct flights daily from Heathrow make the journey to Philadelphia not much more arduous or expensive than the train from London to Edinburgh."

I'm not sure if it's really true that the London-Edinburgh train is this costly, but whatever, this show is very interesting. I especially recommend it if you have any interest in contemporary art. It's never occurred to me that Jasper Johns actually shares a connection with Cezanne before this show.

And if nothing else, it's a chance to see Picasso's "La Reve" in Steve Wynn's collection -- that 139 MM painting he was about to sell but accidentally damaged himself.

Hmm... Very tempting. It closes on May 31. I wonder if I can pull off a quick trip there before then?
http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/312.html

I guess I can look into flying down there for a day trip...

Can you see the hole in La Reve (didn't he stab a pen or something into the painting and punctured the canvas)?

I think Wynn "stabbed" the painting with his elbow. I remember reading somewhere that Wynn has problems with his peripheral vision, so that was why he damaged the painting.

I didn't look at the painting all that carefully yesterday. I was there with a friend, and while ordinarily I go through a show quickly, with someone I find that my attention is even more diverted than usual.

But I'd seen the painting last year in NYC when Wynn loaned it to a show at Acquavella (I think that's his dealer). At that time I remember trying to see if I could see evidence of a repair, but I couldn't.

Obviously Wynn had the painting professionally restored before putting it on display again. I suspect that any tear would not be that easily visible.

I'm going to look up the catalogue soon. The essays in this sound intersting.

I think this is a successful show because it really does make some of the connections much clearer than they'd seem. Perhaps the connections are evident to a professional art historian, but for someone more casually interested in art, there's much to savor. As I mentioned, I recommend this show to people who also like contemporary art as it's a good opportunity to see how people like Jeff Wall, Ellsworth Kelly, Jasper Johns and Brice Marden (among others) are so clearly influenced by Cezanne. It's a well curated show.

Also worth mentioning: the museum has a room full of Cy Twomblys. I don't know if that's new.

The Cy Twombly gallery is not that new... since I mentioned it in my 2006 TR:
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...iladelphia.cfm

Is this show touring anywhere else?

I wonder if Wynn is still thinking of selling the painting, otherwise why is he loaning it all over the place? He already sold his Vermeer last Fall, so maybe he's short on cash. (though he may not find a buyer, given a Picasso didn't sell in the recent auction.)

No I don't think so. The Telegraph review (?) mentions that the private collectors would not agree to lend the paintings to a second venue. I don't know if it's speculation or if it's for real.

In any case, I'm not sure if there's really anything that's truly priceless in this show. The Walls, the Mardens, the Kellys and perhaps even the Johnses should cost well under 100 MM (each). I don't know about the Cezannes, but the best ones will probably never come on sale anyway (neither the Philadelphia Museum or the National Gallery will ever auction off "Bathers").

The Wynn painting is obviously no longer worth 139 MM (the price tag when Wynn was about to sell it to Steve Cohen), I'd imagine, first because of the damage and second because the art market seems much less heated than before. Plus who can come up with 139 MM now?

I wonder how much the Wynn paid for it -- the New Yorker article below says that the painting was auctioned for 48.4 MM in 1997 and Steve Wynn bought it in a private sale. This painting seems like a very big deal for it to have commanded close to 50 MM 12 years ago.

For anyone who wants to catch up with the story on Wynn and La Reve, this is the New Yorker version published in Oct. 2006:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/200...alk_paumgarten

I don't normally read the New Yorker. Is this typical of New Yorker style? "Cohen agreed to pay a hundred and thirty-nine million dollars for it...."

Numbers (e.g. 139) are spelled out in their full glory. Lovely. :)

Perhaps the writers need to fill up the empty space.

I agree! A great show.

We paid extra for a guided tour before regular hours, it was so nice to be in near-empty (maybe 75 people all together?), gallerys to really enjoy it. As 111op said, it was very illuminating about "modern" art, which my husband and I don't always fully appreciate.

~Liz

How did the guided tour work? Maybe I should take the bus and go again. But I find the show ridiculously expensive (I mean, $24 plus $3 handling!). That's my main complaint.

I was reading the New Yorker article again and the author writes 48.4. (Forty-eight point four million? Forty-eight million and four hundred thousand dollars?) That'd be hard to spell out. :)

I'm sure that this is covered in a Style guide somewhere, but it doesn't seem necessary to spell out 139. But in that context, I think the writer did the right thing (possibly for greater impact). The cartoon about the "vibrato" had me laughing too.

Thanks for posting this! Sad that I didn't know being on this side of the pond.

In case people are wondering what I'm talking about with the "vibrato" cartoon, it was this one:

http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_d...d=4&sid=119276

After checking out the article a few times, I've noticed the cartoons rotate. I thought at first they chose a really apt cartoon to go with the article, but it's pure coincidence.

When I tried to find this cartoon online, I found another one that was part of the caption contest the magazine runs. Check this out if you want a laugh (it has a music theme too):

http://contest.newyorker.com/CaptionContest.aspx?id=48

Wish I were closer and not completely across the U.S. I have a friend who lives in New Hope. Maybe I could....

Would love to see that exhibit. sigh

About the guided tour-

We're museum members, so I'm not sure, but I assume others can go for even more than the $35 (I think) each we paid. It was worth it to me because I'm a big Cezanne fan, and really hate crowds.

There were a few other groups there while we were, but it never felt crowded or rushed, and the guide didn't annoy us...OK, other than some excessive name-dropping, she was pretty good.

~Liz

Thanks. I checked the website for ticketing and it seems like the tour option is not open to non-members, and I can't check member pricing because I've nothing to use to log in.

I'm a little confused, however, because it seems like memebers can get free tickets to the show. But with the $35 it sounds like you avoided the crowds and got a guide. The membership page says there's a free guided tour of some sort -- but I guess that's "Cezanne and Contemporaries" and it's most likely not the same tour.

Thw website is a bit confusing. The GUIDED TOUR on this page is what we did. We weren't a "group", but were with other people.
http://www.philamuseum.org/visit/dis...hibitions.html

~Liz

Thanks for that link. That's much better!

I must say I'm shocked by how expensive these events are in Philly. In NYC there's nothing more than $20 (at MoMA), as far as I can remember, and admission always includes all the special exhibitions.