paul cézanne (intermezzo)

ok, just a short intermezzo, because google happened to mention his birthday (19 january 1839). but also because paul cézanne is one of the first western artists, if not the first, to truly question the relation between what we see and what we think we see and what we think is reality...

this questioning is of scientific nature in my eyes, and finds its counterpart in neuroscience, but also in philosophy.

the below painting may seem just another still life to you, but there is something more going on. in fact, just in the places where the attention naturally shifts, so do certain `visual laws'. in my eyes this is a poignant reference to the way we perceive reality: in bits and pieces.

later, cézanne's work of course led to cubism, which in its dissection of reality is even more radical in its approach. but to me cézanne is more disturbing in a sense, because his distortions are more subtle.


paul cézanne, the basket of apples (1895, click on the image for an enlargement)