Masterpieces by Cézanne, Picasso, Renoir, and Matisse fill the Met's new exhibition, said Michael Kimmelman in The New York Times. But 'œthe star of the show is not any of the artists.' Rather, Cézanne to Picasso celebrates the career of Ambroise Vollard, the 20th century's greatest art dealer, through whose hands all these works at one time passed. The law-school dropout began buying etchings at stands along the Seine, but ended up 'œstupendously wealthy.' He shaped the tastes of countless American and Continental collectors, snapping up Gauguins and van Goghs when no one had heard of them, and reviving Cézanne's reputation when he'd almost been forgotten. Still, he wasn't averse to making money from passing fads, and 'œit's a pity that the Met, allergic to mediocrity,' doesn't introduce us to any of his lesser-known clients.
There would hardly be room, said Lance Esplund in The New York Sun. You've never seen so much great art in one place, so 'œpace yourself.' A gallery of van Gogh adjoins one of Cézanne, and first-rank works by Bonnard, Vuillard, Degas, and others line the way. It's like 'œeight or 10 individual exhibitions' all rolled into one. But that's merely a prelude to the final Picasso gallery, which includes the artist's 100-print Vollard Suite. Commissioned by the collector in the 1930s, this 'œsweeping tour de force,' overflows with gods, nymphs, muses, and nudes of all sorts. This is high modernism, but deeply influenced by Ingres, Rubens, El Greco, and other old masters. Almost a museum in itself, The Vollard Suite 'œsummons and grapples with the history of Western art and mythology' like no other collection of images.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Can AI tools be used to Hollywood's advantage?Talking Points It makes some aspects of the industry faster and cheaper. It will also put many people in the entertainment world out of work
-
'Paraguay has found itself in a key position'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Meet Youngmi Mayer, the renegade comedian whose frank new memoir is a blitzkrieg to the genreThe Week Recommends 'I'm Laughing Because I'm Crying' details a biracial life on the margins, with humor as salving grace
-
If/Thenfeature Tony-winning Idina Menzel “looks and sounds sensational” in a role tailored to her talents.
-
Rocky
feature It’s a wonder that this Rocky ever reaches the top of the steps.
-
Love and Information
feature Leave it to Caryl Churchill to create a play that “so ingeniously mirrors our age of the splintered attention span.”
-
The Bridges of Madison County
feature Jason Robert Brown’s “richly melodic” score is “one of Broadway’s best in the last decade.”
-
Outside Mullingar
feature John Patrick Shanley’s “charmer of a play” isn’t for cynics.
-
The Night Alive
feature Conor McPherson “has a singular gift for making the ordinary glow with an extra dimension.”
-
No Man’s Land
feature The futility of all conversation has been, paradoxically, the subject of “some of the best dialogue ever written.”
-
The Commons of Pensacola
feature Stage and screen actress Amanda Peet's playwriting debut is a “witty and affecting” domestic drama.