Cézannes Composition: Analysis of His Form with Diagrams and Photographs of His Motifs

Cézannes Composition: Analysis of His Form with Diagrams and Photographs of His Motifs | Erle Loran | Interesting analysis

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Cézannes Compositi...

	Cézannes Composition: Analysis of His Form with Diagrams and Photographs of His Motifs Erle Loran University of California Press, 2006 - 169 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This book had its provenance in the late 1920s, when Erle Loran, then a young artist who wanted to fathom the mysteries of Cézanne's structural form, took up residence in the master's studio in Aix-en-Provence. For several years he lived there and painted, and when he came across familiar motifs in the countryside, he took snapshots of the setting. These photographs assisted Loran in his analysis of Cézanne's composition and served as the basis for this book, which analyzes over 30 of Cézanne's paintings. This new edition brings Loran's milestone study up-to-date with a new foreword by art historian Richard Shiff, who places Loran's work into today's art historical context.

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Brilliant explanation of space & planes.

Pages 17 to 24 are a so called "Illustrated Glossary" and are worth buying the book for. The classic rules of space and depth and planes are explained in most of their complexity. Then he discusses many many examples of Cezanne's work and how they use the principles of space, planes, and depth. A masterpiece and extensive in its scope. If you really want this type of abstract picture understanding you will not be disappointed. Very highly recommended.

Interesting analysis

Many of Cézanne's paintings are essentially composed of flat, homogenous planes. He has no interest in textures and takes great freedom in choosing colours and distributing them patchwise. He also disregards proportions and perspective, making receding objects such as roads, mountains and hills stand up straight, so to speak, to the picture plane. Thus each plane in the painting "remains comparatively flat and parallel to the picture plane", but still the painting has a definite feeling of depth because of "the three-dimensional effect that a sequence of the same planes creates through overlapping" (plate XIII). "Cézanne's genius in organizing three-dimensional space is the basic foundation of his composition" and doing so by the plane colour patch approach agrees with the principle that a painting "must remain faithful to its own structure, to its fundamental two dimensions" (section XV). The organisation of space is achieved by the "tension" or "movement" created where planes overlap, and this is Loran's main framework for analysing Cézanne's paintings. With some imagination and many useful geometrical diagrams we can sum up the effects of the overlaps to a general movement; usually some sort of circular movement, always staying within the picture frame. Loran is very faithful to this point of view, even blaming Cézanne when it doesn't apply. In his analysis of a Sainte Victoire painting (plate X) he finds such a circular movement and concludes: "It is this circular movement that gives the painting it ultimate 'closed' effect. Actually, this canvas has many elements of open form ... personally, I find these latter elements insufficiently resolved and somewhat disturbing." Besides this analytic framework, Loran also makes more traditional analyses in terms of balance, dynamics, etc., and he also spends far too much time nagging about two pet topics: Cézanne's famous colour modulations are in fact of incidental importance and Cézanne anticipated Picasso and Braque.

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An Extraordinary Book!

When I first read this book, over twenty-five years ago, I thought it was the most remarkable book ever written on how an artist composes and organizes his or her creative process. Over the years, I've returned to it many times. Having recently re-read the book I find I am still thrilled by Loran's ability to illuminate the special qualities within Cézanne's canvases. As an artist and art educator, Loran was in a unique position to comprehend how this artist balanced the formal, intuitive, and experiential aspects of composition. All of this comes through admirably and clearly. Although I imagine some people might find the graphic diagrams cold and remote from the vitality of Cézanne's painting, I think a close reading of the book demonstrates that an illustrative graphic can help us reach a deeper understanding of the artist at work, in this case Cézanne. If you are a fan of Cézanne, definitely read this book! If you are interested in understanding the artistic mind, definitely read this book.

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great analysis of the master of masters

The book is trully great.... very well written and thoroughly analized...My only problem with it was the lack of colour plates (understanding that the study of his technique is concentrated on the orchestration of planes and volumes). I believe the study of this master requires colours... in order to fully appreciate his methods but also becuse of the pleasure of merely being a spectator and enjoying his art for what it really is...a ballet of fantasy and life!
Appart from that I do believe it is a must for any lover of art.

Pages misplaced

The book itself is good, but pages 17 - 32 were misplaced after page 48, it is too trouble and time consume to mail back to exchange or refund. Books like this should not sell to customers.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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