Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Cézanne and Beyond


Cézanne and Beyond, originally uploaded by ujima.

Julian Abele (April 30, 1881 – April 23, 1950) was a prominent African-American architect, known best for his work on the Duke University campus and on the PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART.
n 1906, Abele joined the firm of legendary Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer, as an assistant to Trumbauer's chief designer, Frank Seeburger. When Seeburger left the firm in 1909, Abele advanced to chief designer, a position which he would hold until Trumbauer's death in 1938.
Abele designed or contributed to the design of some 250 buildings, including Harvard’s Widener Memorial Library, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Shadow Lawn Mansion which currently serves as the administrative headquarters of Monmouth University, and many Gilded Age mansions in Newport and New York City.
AfricanAmerican History is American History.

At the museum today to see the Cézanne exhibit. It was so enjoyable because they positioned the paintings of artists influenced by Cézanne with his works. I especially enjoyed seeing Matisse and Picasso's take on Cézanne's painting of his wife in a red chair and other artists interpretations of his paintings of bathers.
The work of the 18 artists shown along with Cézanne's work echoed his subject matter, composition, colors etc. while still expressing their own style.
We ate in the museum restaurant where I had the "TheBathers" entree: pan-seared skate in a porcini broth with vegetable dumplings, Excellent!!

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