The Phoenix Art Museum has planned three upcoming lectures meant to accompany an exciting upcoming exhibition of Cézanne’s work. All three are free and open to the public, and are intended to ignite discussion of the painter’s unique artistic style and his influence on artists in areas of the United States he never even visited, including the Wild West.

On July 7, Jerry Smith, the curator of American and Western American art and contributor to the catalogue Cézanne and American Modernism, will discuss works featured in the museum’s Cézanne exhibition of the same name, debuting July 1. Smith will also talk about the ways in which American artists were able to incorporate Cézanne’s styles and techniques into their own works around the beginning of the 20th century.

The following month, on August 4, Norton Family Curator of Photography Rebecca Senf, Ph.D., will discuss the the impact the painter had on an entirely different artistic medium – photography. Shutterbugs will be interested in learning how early American photographers tried to emulate various components of Cézanne’s works, including subject matter and composition.

The series will wrap September 1 with a final lecture arguing the ways in which Cézanne’s discoveries relating to artistic perspective paved the way for future movements, including Cubism, and in many ways served as the bridge between Impressionism and the avant-garde movements of the 20th century.

Serious art enthusiasts will find this series enthralling. Come discover why Henri Matisse called Cézanne the “father of us all,” and Pablo Picasso declared the painter his “one and only master.”

All lectures are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Phoenix Art Museum is located at 1625 N. Central Avenue in Phoenix  602.257.1222