I went to see Cezanne and Beyond exhibition on Saturday with three of my friends, and ended up becoming a member of the museum (even though I don’t live in Philadelphia – long story).

At the end of the day, the show was fantastic in what it had in it – here’s some videos I took on my trip

I didn’t take any video while I was in the show, as I had hoped I might, nor do I have many online photos I can get from the museum’s website that I might use to illustrate my points, so I’ll simply write them down, briefly, here.

In a few of the Cezanne still lifes, I noticed a curious pattern where 7 apples would often appear in a dish, next to 6 in the next, next to five in yet the next dish, while it wasn’t a certainty this was deliberated, by gut said it was, and led me to ponder if the master of Aix, who is my favorite painter, was in fact, more deliberate, than I believed in his choices of motifs and arrangement.

There was one painting I saw of Madame Cezanne – one I had not seen before, that showed more affection then any other he’s ever done – and it made me wonder at the stages of relationships (it was one of his earlier portraits, around 1885).

Also saw Sous Bois, the painting my footage from Aix was used for, that is in LACMA‘s collection – and a few superb paintings by other artists such as Picasso, Braque and Matisse.

While the point of this Cezanne and Beyond show, was the attempt to show the influence of Cezanne on later artists – most of the work that wasn’t Cezanne’s in the show, didn’t interest me, with a few exceptions.

Also, I got a glimmer into why Cezanne is so important – it’s that he evolved a new vocabulary of seeing and painting that changed the way many others, who came after him, paint.    In a way, you can say  that he or she who is an influential (artist) to other influentials – is a “hyper influential” – by influencing other great artists the way he did, Cezanne’s work developed an universal significance beyond what it would normally, have had.

Reality follows concept – and the concept of the following videos I took today came from two friends, one that came up with the idea, and another, that took the videos of me, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Cecilia Pineda Feret came up with the idea of me talking about something I’m passionate about – painting, especially the painters I care most about, like Paul Cezanne – while Dorothy Clementson was with me at the Metropolitan today and when I spontaniously suggested we take video, and that I had a video camera with me, we went ahead and just did it.

And today was pretty nice as I got to spend a lot of time with my friend Dorothy as we looked at Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna

In fact, The New York Times reviewed this drawing collection just last month, shortly after it opened to the public – Where Lines Become a Kind of Language

One of my favorite drawings in the collection

A Manet drawing of Madame Louhens,  done sometime between 1878-82.

Odilon Redon

Also, this Odilon Redon Portrait of Genevieve de Gonet is equisite.

Anyway, I put forth some of my ideas about art and Cezanne in my first two videos, and the last one is really about a painting owned by a reader of this blog connected to the painting in the Metropolitan Museum, an early Cezanne.

I’m too tired to write more tonight – but I will soon.  I’ve been so busy on both the work I do (Web Analytics, Social Media) and Art (paintings and writings on Webmetricsguru.com) plus the New York Social Scene that I love so much, that at times, it can be difficult to update my blogs as much as I would want, or should do.

I hope to make up for it by posting a lot in the next couple of weeks.

I went back to the Metropolitan Museum of Art last night and had an enjoyable time looking at some European paintings and really taking in the Cezanne paintings, yet another time. I meant to post here last night but when I got home I was too exhausted; I promised to myself that I’d remember what I needed to and post as soon as I could.

My first stop was viewing in a different way the View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph by Paul Cézanne which looked different to me last night.

This was the first Cezanne, I’m told, that was purchased for an American Collection and one of the few landscapes he signed. Perhaps the olive green/brown walls of the newly redone European Paintings wing helped this painting shine more – it’s a gem and I had the sensation of “feeling” the artist’s feelings within me.

Beyond that – I sensed Cezanne was projecting his painting past the physical frame of it – it’s as if the paintings fully resolves behind or in-front of itself.

Having been to that part of France last year – I imagined having stood exactly where he stood (even though I didn’t visit that spot) and got the feeling that painting and life are one, and here’s why.

Everyone’s life is imperfect, yet often, what we’re creating is what we’re working towards, not so much what we actually achieve.

Cezanne’s Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses is my favorite painting in the Metropolitan (a painting Claude Monet once owned), and one that I’ve studied and known for almost 40 years, since I was a young teenager.

No one could have painted this painting except Cezanne, in retreat, solitude, if you will, around Aix-en-Provence. Most of Cezanne’s paintings make great postage stamps – something about the composition – and when I stand in front of this great painting – I feel as if my mind first goes blank, and then seems to get lost in cobalt green/blue of the background, and then the apples on the table.

Not grand or large like several earlier European paintings – the Cezanne are valuable not only as works of art, but for what they contributed to other artists and art movement that came after; at least, that’s one way to look at it.

I had a few more impressions that I could not quite write down – I felt as if the moments I spent looking at what I did – I was taking in a tremendous amount of information beyond what I could take in and write about.

Then I treated myself to a glass of red wine and a light snack of marinated olives and dried meats at the Balcony Bar. I regretted not having my sketch pad with me but decided it’s not really important right now.

On my way out of the museum, I stumbled past the Roman and Greek Wing, which was almost empty, and enjoyed the Roman Wall Murals and some of the Roman sculpture portraits, including imperial portraits.

After comparing the Metropolitan to the Louvre in my mind, I decided, all things being equal, the Metropolitan was a more enjoyable experience because much of the work at the Met is better shown than the much larger, but not well lit, collections at the Louvre.

And than I made my way home – feeling that, while I could not paint much or at all this month – somehow, I was taking in what I needed.

I had a thought as I left the Metropolitan, or while I was there, that while I’m a pretty gifted artist, my contribution, mission in life, is not really that much about art and the work I’m doing to bring together Analytics, Social Media and Art is probably much more important to society than any painting I do, to the Art World – which barely knows I exist.

And I’ve come to terms with that – I don’t require being known or being successful as an artist – nor do I have any compulsive need to paint, at this time of my life – have nothing I need to prove to anyone, but myself.

Yet, all the same, much of my work could hold well against much of what I’ve seen in museums, and some of it is even better.

Still, my purpose in life is not to succeed as an artist.

A couple of months back I applied for a Nyfa.com Art grant, at the very last minute. I have no illusions that I’ll get it, nor do I really need or require it – I’m still going to paint and do what I do with or without it.

However, what I really wanted to say when I applied, but didn’t – that it would be great if, for once, as an artist, I got some recognition that my work is good and that people recognize its worth supporting and nuturing – want to see more of it – that in some small way, society values it.

I feel this painting, self portrait, is one of my best.

Wouldn’t be nice if the world could work that way.

Google Books has a new feature allowing anyone to take a part of a public domain book that Google has scanned and embed it into a blog.

And guess what I picked to embed…. a page from my favorite painter, Paul Cezanne.

By the way, I’m getting ready to send 2 paintings to Christine Boulet, my friend who lives in Aix-en-Provence.   I miss Aix, miss Cezanne and had a good time with Christine.

Here’s the paintings I did last month of Christine, after I got back from France.  Darn, wish I spent more time there.   Maybe next time.

I also had some Moo Cards made up recently, and these two images among those on the cards.