d’Arte Board

Toni is in the middle of the woods somewhere, for some reason.  It happens.  In her stead I’m sharing with you a short homework assignment I did reporting on an essay about Cezanne for my Senior English Thesis course on in college.  Aren’t you thrilled?! 

Paul Cézanne, "Pommes and Oranges" 1899

Chapter 3 of Charles Biederman’s “The New Cezanne”:

“The Implicit Structure of Painting“
pp23-28

    Mr. Biederman begins this chapter by stating that all art has been some kind of
abstraction of nature, regardless of how “realistic” or abstract it may seem.  The reason for this is that nature, in it’s entirety cannot be grasped simply by man.  It is too complex for us to represent it simply.  The artist, therefore, must create some sort of structure in which to convey his own sensations.  Because the artist cannot grasp nature in its entirety, he must consent to limiting his scope and representation.  Biederman suggests that geometry is the best  tool for visual artists because it offers a simple set of symmetries which allow “offer the artist variable methods of order.”
   
    Biederman takes care to point out, however, that within nature, symmetry is rarely found.  It is often the departure from the rigid order of symmetry which characterizes nature.   He calls this imperfect order “natural symmetry”, contrasting it to the “ideal symmetry” of science, which he rejects as unrealistic.

    Biederman turns toward Cezanne at this point, relaying the artist’s theories.  The symmetry which a painter must be concerned with is the symmetry of an object’s surface, or appearance rather than a form’s internal symmetry.  As opposed to sculpture which deals with form as form, the painter must translate that form into a series of planes. The planes must be organized so as to imply a three dimensional symmetry on the two dimensional space.  Cezanne also notes that all forms in space are convex, receding from their center.

    Next, Cezanne speaks of light, saying that it does not exist for a painter.  Light
upon a sculpture is defined by the form and the varying light source.  It is not defined.  A painter, however, must define the effect of this light onto a static image.  He does this through the manipulation of color.  Applying this manipulation of color to the planes of symmetry will imply a light source that does not actually exist.

    When we put the these two subjects together, we understand how a series of two dimensional planes of color can represent three dimensional forms of nature.

    Cezanne takes the notion of symmetry further, however, manipulating it in terms
of the physical boundaries of the canvas.  He often composed his paintings in such a way that the center of the canvas is defined by an object which the rest of the painting reacts to (the Bather, Pommes et Oranges).  His paintings would have a natural symmetry of composition, then as well as of method.  The compositional symmetry serves to point out that the symmetrical process is a construction of a system by which nature can be interpreted. 
   
     Copyright 1958.  Published by The Leicht Press, Winona Minnesota.