Cézanne's Card Players Series United in Landmark Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

• February 9–May 8, 2011
• Press Preview: Monday, February 7, 10 a.m.–noon

Cézanne's Card Players, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning February 9, 2011, will unite works from the famous series by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), bringing together a majority of the related paintings, oil studies, and drawings. A select group of portraits of peasants, several of whom appear in the Card Players compositions, will also be included in this landmark exhibition, the first devoted to the subject. Created in the 1890s while the artist was living at his family's estate outside Aix-en-Provence, these images capture the character Cézanne admired in the people of the region. Together the works chart the development of the series as Cézanne strove to achieve the most powerful expression of his motif.

The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The Courtauld Gallery, London.

It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

The Metropolitan Museum holds one of the finest collections of Cézanne works in the world and, in 1913, it was the first public institution in the United States to acquire a painting by the artist. The Metropolitan's The Card Players (1890-92) will be displayed in this focused exhibition, as well as Seated Peasant (1892-96) from the Museum's Annenberg Collection. They will be joined by major loans from international museums including The Courtauld Gallery, Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts, Kimbell Art Museum, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Musée d'Orsay, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pierpont Morgan Library, and Worcester Art Museum, as well as private collections.

Cézanne's depictions of card players would prove to be one of his most ambitious projects and it occupied him for several years. He undertook the series at the beginning of the 1890s using peasants and laborers at his family's estate, the Jas de Bouffan, as models. These sittings resulted in five closely related canvases of different sizes that show card players engaged in the age-old ritual of their game, three of which will be reunited in Cézanne's Card Players. He also produced a larger number of paintings of the individual farm workers who appear in the Card Players compositions, major examples of which will be on view. The exhibition features a number of rarely seen oil sketches and watercolor studies for these paintings. Uncharacteristic of Cézanne's usual working practice, these preparatory works suggest that he studied the models individually and literally assembled them on the canvas. Together the works chart Cézanne's gradual refinement of his compositions, and offer a fascinating sense of the development of this series. In the process, he abandoned the conventional rules of painting and arrived at an innovative approach to express the essential character of his subjects.

Cézanne's Card Players series of paintings and his portraits of individual peasants have come to epitomize his vision of rural life in Provence. He conveys the gravitas and stoicism of his sitters, for whom he had great admiration. The local peasants of Aix were to Cézanne steadfast, unchanging, and monumental, not unlike his beloved Mont Sainte-Victoire. As he later put it, "I love above all else the appearance of people who have grown old without breaking with old customs."

Cézanne's Card Players is organized at The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Chairman of the Museum's Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by The Courtauld Gallery that includes contributions from leading Cézanne scholars. It presents the results of new technical research conducted especially for the exhibition by the Metropolitan Museum and The Courtauld Gallery, and sheds fresh light on Cézanne's working practice and challenges established views about the sequence of the Card Players series.

An audio tour, part of the Museum's Audio Guide Program, is available for rental ($7, $6 for Members, $5 for children under 12).

The Audio Guide is sponsored by Bloomberg.

A variety of educational programs will accompany the exhibition, including gallery talks, film screenings, and a Sunday at the Met lecture program on April 3.

The exhibition and its related programs are featured on the Museum's website at www.metmuseum.org.

     Peter Serkin at Seattle Symphony

PACIFIC DESIGN CENTER PRESENTS

SCOTT FRANCES

An exhibition of Architectural Photography

Photo credit: Jason Schmidt

Reception: Tuesday, March 22

Blue Building, Space B231

6:00 – 8:00PM

Charles S. Cohen and Pacific Design Center are pleased to present MonoVisioN, a selection of photographs from design and architectural photographer Scott Frances. The exhibition, on view from March 22nd to April 29th, is located among the Design Loves Art Galleries on the Second Floor of the Blue Building at the Pacific Design Center in Blue Space 231.

“Scott is one of the most visionary and talented photographers our industry has seen,” said Charles S. Cohen, President and owner of the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California, the Decoration and Design Building in New York, New York, the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach, Florida, and the Decorative Center Houston in Texas. “We are honored to have his MonoVisioN exhibition make its West Coast debut here at the PDC.  It’s truly a collection of enormous beauty and vision.”

Renowned for his architecture and lifestyle photography, Scott is a frequent contributor to such illustrious magazines as Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, New York Times Magazine, and Departures. Scott has worked with many of the world’s most famous architects and designers after beginning his career shooting for Richard Meier. He has photographed the homes of such celebrities as Jennifer Aniston, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Jim Belushi, Claire Danes, Clive Davis, Steve Jobs, Elton John, Cindy Crawford, Ted Turner and Jessica Lange.

Scott’s images reflect the synthesis of his interests in carefully balanced composition, using atmospheric and naturally motivated light. With a journalist’s need to tell a story simply, along with his passion for the decorative arts, his imagery bridges recurring themes throughout art history.

Frances’ exhibition kicks off this year’s WESTWEEK, Pacific Design Center’s annual design industry event that combines keynote lectures, showroom programs, new product introductions and book signings. This internationally recognized design trade event welcomes thousands of design professionals and design enthusiasts each spring.

Following the Pacific Design Center, MonoVisioN will tour the other Cohen Design Centers in New York City, South Florida and Houston.

A catalogue accompanies the exhibition with an introduction by renowned architect Richard Meier. In the preface to MonoVisioN, Meier states: "A Scott Frances photograph captures all these ephemeral elements that I have always explored in my architectural work. The images in this book portray the qualities that give every space and building a sense of place, and the constant dialogue between the man-made and the natural. MonoVisioN becomes an exploration of solid and void, transparency and opaqueness, the rational and the intuitive, and an essay on composition."

A book signing and lecture by Scott Frances will be held at 1:00PM on Thursday, March 24, 2011 in the Blue Conference Center (Suite B259). 

Please refer to www.pacificdesigncenter.com for a listing of events and updated information

                   NEW BURBERRY STYLE FOR SPRING & SUMMER

                        OPERA SANTA BARBARA

Based on the novel and play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas Jr., Verdi’s La traviata (1853) is one of the ten most popular operas in the repertoire.

Violetta Valéry, a beautiful and prominent courtesan in 19th century Paris, is committed to a life of pleasure and notoriety. But when the well-born Alfredo Germont enters her life, bringing with him the possibility of a true and enduring love, her resolution will be put to the test. The disapproval of Alfredo’s father and Violetta's secret life-threatening illness bring this tale to its heart-wrenching climax.

This new production, with the insightful direction of OSB’s Artistic Director Jose Maria Condemi, will feature Rebecca Davis as Violetta, Ryan MacPherson as Alfredo and Malcolm MacKenzie as Giorgio Germont. Maestro Valéry Ryvkin conducts the opera Santa Barbara Orchestra in this timeless romantic tale of love, betrayal and forgiveness.