Description
Book SynopsisDiscusses an epochal shift in the representation of sexuality in modern art with the images of nudes made by Paul Cezanne. This book proposes a way of reading Cezanne's biography as a form of art criticism. It also proposes a reading of Cezanne's images of bathers that accounts for their strangenesses and for the pleasures they produce.
Trade Review“An astute and original analysis of Cézanne’s key canvases, the Bathers, and through them, of the equally central issue in Cézanne scholarship, namely, the erotic dimension of his vision . . . a stimulating, truly provocative study.”
—Ewa Lajer-Burcharth,Harvard University
“For the lay reader, Cézanne’s Bathers can be challenging at points, but it’s a rewarding look at how art history gets made and how a careful sifting through the available evidence leads to the revelation of new meanings.”
—Ann Landi ARTnews
“These beautiful and elegantly complex volumes reconsider major figures in the development of 20th-century modernism. . . . While these volumes, like others in the series, may seem geared for the specialist, their value lies in their willingness to question, to use new evidence and new methods of addressing art history, and to forge new connections between disciplines. Patient readers will find these books can enliven and deepen their examination of art.”
—R.K. Dickson Bloomsbury Review
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Modernism’s Two Cézannes
1. A Biography of Failure
2. Cézanne’s Bathers and the Erotics of Paint
3. Baigneurs/Baigneuses: Making a Difference
4. Matisse’s Doubt/Doubting Matisse
Notes
Index
