late paper

Paul Cezanne and Andy Davis were both pioneers in their approaches to painting. It was through studying Cezanne’s unique methods of capturing a form that would lead the way for modern artist like Davis today. They both do not care for mimicking what was popular, but instead chose to create their own structure of painting. Both these artist study form geometrically and experiment with strange usage of perspective. Although these two artists never met in person, Cézanne’s personal struggles and paintings played vital role in paving the way for artists like Andy Davis and in the shaping of modern art.

Cezanne’s paintings are often seen as a bridge between art of the late 19^th and early 20^th century. It was predominately Cézanne’s later works that inspired the origins of cubism. His pieces had two major characteristics cubists would adopt into their own work; the simplification of his subjects in to geometric shapes and his use of perspective. Cezanne would use spheres, cubes, and cones as his primary tools of abstracting the natural forms in his work. He used thoughtful and exploratory brush strokes to compose these shapes into a distinct, innovative image. It was also his studies of the human viewpoint that cubists found fascinating. Since humans have two eyes he saw there to be two slightly different perspectives at once. He explored depth perception and spatial relations, even flattening the image to the surface that it was on. These two methods drew harsh criticism and were often misinterpreted as a mistake.

Andy Davis does not have the troubled life that Cezan had to live but rather is a happily surfing Californian. Even with these differences in their lifestyles there are remarkable similarities in their works. Andy uses bold brushstrokes and takes a very painterly approach. This image shows one of his most common traits in his works, which is the flattening of the subject. It is the solid green mount with two white squiggles and a sliver of blue that make this picture work so well for me. He only supplies the most minimal amount of information and through color relationship and where they are positioned in the space that the audience is left to piece it together. The surfer and wave boldly are positioned in the foreground of this panting and uses a strange point of perspective. The abstracted and quite uniform water along with the earth looking severe creates an effect that seems as though the surfer is riding the stars of outer space.

It is clear that the geometric and perspective tendencies of Cézanne’s works played a major role in the development of modern painters like Andy Davis.