Customer Reviews

Cezanne: Landscape into Art

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Although this is a great book for any art lover it is a must for the plein air (outdoor) painter. It demonstrates how Cezanne transformed his "motif", the scene he has selected, into a painting by showing photos of the motif side by side with his paintings. Machotka, an artist himself, discusses the artistic problems presented by each scene and Cezanne's various solutions as they vary over his development as an artist. Machotka is knowledgeable, thoughtful and writes well. This book will certainly extend your appreciation of Cezanne and if you paint plein air, will likely make you a much more observant and better painter. As a painter this is one of the few books on composition and technique that I recommend to other painters.

Cezanne's influence on Cubism and later abstract styles can make the viewer forget just how important looking at his native landscape was to the painter. This wonderful book helps us see the fascinating ways Cezanne succeeded in "realizing his sensations" in front of nature and landscape. A book to return to again and again.

This is by far one of the best books I have ever read and had. Machotka details Cezanne in a great way. I was never a great fan of Cezanne before purchasing this book, now I'm a devoted fan! Cezanne would be proud to have someone like Machotka writing about his work.

I teach a university level plein air painting course in Michigan. This book will be helpful for students to see how Cezanne interpreted and why he chose particular landscape subjects.

Machotka's "Cezanne: Landscape into Art" is now a classic study of the rich ways in which nature impacted the mind and artistic transmission of the acknowledged "father of Modern Art." This study which provided documentary evidence in the form of color photographs taken in precisely the same location used by Cezanne in painting his iconic works reminds the reader that modern art did not divorce itself from nature as many thinkers have claimed. In fact the evidence that modern art remains indebted to its father and his love of nature becomes abundantly evident in Machotka's seminal work. Every Post-Post Modernist is well advised to rethink arts relationship to nature; it is as unavoidable as ones own body and its natural reality. Landscape into art is the evidence that art itself cannot long subsist without a strong tie to its natural origins. Any renewal of art begins at its origins in the natural realm and at the side of its father Cezanne. William J. Havlicek PhD.

Excellent presentation and exploration of the interpretation of Cezanne's landscapes, sites. The author did a fantastic job locating the spots from where Cezanne observed and conveyed his images. The author's own thoughts and insights were instructive as well.
The book was used in good condition, only the cover was poor.

My FAVORITE book by far! After scanning through a copy owned by a local artist, I spent hours and gas driving to used book stores in Berkeley and San Francisco since it is no longer published, and finally purchased it on-line. The text is wonderful, describing Cezanne's techniques. Love seeing the photographs next to Cezanne's painting of it to compare how he translated what he was seeing.