A Reactionary

When I was young, I read Clement Greenberg, and if you subscribed to his ideas, painting was over. Robert Motherwell declared eighty years ago that landscape painting ended with Cezanne. So here I am again painting in a retardataire, reactionary, worn out manner.  But then, I think because other people have already visited Paris, that isn't a reason why I shouldn't go too.  A Seine postcard painting. 6x8 inches, oil on multimedia artboard.

The End of Landscape

Rue Celony again.  It is a narrow street that pedestrians and vehicles use as a shortcut to get to the old part of Aix.  Fortunately there are metal barriers to separate people from machines.  This painting is a 12x16 oil on panel.

Here are a couple interesting quotes from the Alex Danchev biography of Paul Cezanne:

'Asked why he was so fond of ultramarine, he [Cezanne] replied: "Because the sky is blue."'

'"With Cezanne landscape itself comes to an end," proclaimed the artist Robert Motherwell in the 1940's.'