Cezanne and Beyond

Large Bathers, Cezanne, 1906/Philadelphia Museum of Art

Even this early in 2009 it's safe to say that the deeply entertaining new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of the best shows of the year. It goes beyond the standard connections between Cezanne and Matisse or Cezanne and Cubism — though it does very nicely by those, too — to demonstrate how Cezanne's DNA flows through everyone from Marsden Hartley and Giacommetti to Ellsworth Kelly and Brice Marsden. This is what I said about it in the new issue of Time.