Cezanne and the End of Impressionism

Richard Shiff introduces the post-impressionist era, suggesting that by the very nature of the title it rebelled against impressionist ideals despite the many similarities.  Cezanne is universally recognized as the precursor of the post-impressionists, who focused on expression rather than the representation of their predecessors.  In an essay, Roger Fry argues that "there comes a point when the accumulations of an increasing skill in mere representation begin to destroy the expressiveness of the design" (157).  This notion is reiterated throughout the several chapters with the post-impressionist obsession with Cezanne and his primordial perspective.  His art pieces were characterized with humans painted at awkward angles and lacked any sense of depth.  Contemporaries argued that this "primordial visual sensation" was the "most immediate and spontaneous effect to be observed" (172).  This was in contrast to the academic style of the modern artist, who saw nature unoriginally and was able to construct paintings solely based on technical conventions.  While I follow along with this argument, I do not completely understand the main premise behind it.  Why does an increase in the primitiveness of a painting increase its expressive value?  Are realistic paintings unable to convey the same emotions, the same symbols that an incomplete painting lacking depth can?

There are frequent references to Cezanne as the Poussin of impressionism.  However, the similarities between the two artists do not arise in their stylistic and artistic methods but "their attitudes toward art and nature and to the historical past and present" (184).  Poussin is praised for his return to classical ideals in his effort to maintain originality and his rejection of modern "degenerate" art.  Similarly, Cezanne, with his strange and awkward style, rejected modern ideals with his primitive perspective.  Both artists had examined previous artistic styles and it was this knowledge that enabled them to express their own style and originality.  

Through his distortions of reality, Cezanne revolutionized art as modern contemporaries became increasingly obsessed with the primordial vision and rebelling against modern standards.  Interestingly, in Cezanne's paintings all of the distorted images were painted like that as opposed to the deformation of an already created object.  This distorted reality seems akin to the impressionist idea of spontaneous sensation.  

Lastly, this is one particular quote that I found thought provoking: "(Gustave) Geffroy asked how one could determine when a painting was 'finished,' how one could ever terminate the image, the recording of sensation, if life itself, the life of sensation, continued on without end" (193).  Cezanne devoted his life to finding a method to record this expression, which proved unattainable.