Cézanne  Viewed the Cézanne exhibit at the National Gallery yesterday. Rode the V-Rex down via the W&OD, Four Mile Run, and Mt. Vernon Trails. I ended up riding in a t-shirt on a spring-like day. Many people were out running and riding. Several of them passed me as I fixed a flat tire near National Airport. I discovered two things; that my spare tube was the wrong size, and that my tire was nearly worn through to the tube. I patched the puncture, hoping it would hold until I returned home.

I parked between the East and West buildings of the National Gallery. There are several bike racks located there and it's a very public space, with guards and gallery employees usually standing around. I've never had a problem with theft there.

I'm not a big fan of Cézanne. He's not a great draftsman and I've never fully understood his contributions to the field. I enjoyed his earlier, more representational work more than his later, more abstract work. His later work paved the way for the abstract artists to follow, probably one of the reasons I don't care so much for his work. His legacy seems in part to have lead to rooms of huge, lifeless abstract works in empty galleries in such places as the Hirshorn Musuem.

Afterwards I wandered over to once again study the prints of Félix Buhot. Buhot was working around the time of Cézanne in a very traditional, representational style. It's frustrating that the gallery has almost no reproductions of his work for sale in their shops. Here are some examples of his work (those links labelled image available.
posted by Bruce Wright at 10:57 AM #