The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2008, and is marking the event with the anniversary exhibition "Cézanne & Giacometti" - an exhibition that is both a new story of the two artists and their life and work, and a story about what art is and what the artistic process of creation is. The exhibition consists broadly of three "chapters" - or three exhibitions in one.

The first chapter is a retrospective presentation of the great French painter Paul Cézanne - the first in Denmark. With about fifty works obtained from museums and collections all over the world, the visitors will be given an impression of the artist and his range of subjects: the portrait, his wonderful still lifes with apples, the landscape and his favourite subject, the mountain Mont Sainte Victoire outside Aix-en-Provence.

Then - in the second chapter - comes a retrospective presentation of just under a hundred works by the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, and finally - as the third and last chapter - comes the comparison of the two artists.

Alberto Giacometti: Homme qui marche, 1960

Bronze

Click on image to enlarge.

It will of course be an overwhelming experience to take in the two whole careers of such important artists - but this is where the exhibition's challenge lies for the viewer: to reach out beyond the individual artist's universe and see how the two have something in common - the work, the vision, the oeuvre - in short, the art. In other words, it is the ambition of the exhibition to make the viewer consider what it really is that motivates the artist in his work.

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) was not greatly preoccupied with Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) - given that the latter was five years old when the French master died! But there was full contact the other way round: Giacometti was fascinated by Cézanne throughout his life. He copied him, wrote about him, referred to him and took him as a kind of role model for some periods. But the connection does not stop there. Cézanne's and Giacometti's artistic lives show amazing parallels. In their early years, until their late thirties, they were both interested in violence, sexuality, destruction and meaninglessness. Cézanne painted some strange pictures in those early years - he also scrapped many of them - while Giacometti was a Surrealist, with all this involved of psychodrama and symbolism.

Later the two artists changed tack - but they continued to resemble each other in their approach to the material. They maintained a constant interest in depicting what they saw and sensed - but were at the same time plagued by doubts, scruples and scepticism about their own work, combined with a strong faith in its quality. This led them into repetitions of the same subjects and extremely meticulous working processes. And in the end both had to abandon the hope that as an artist one can achieve the expression that tempts one to carry on working - but then just carried on anyway, for the very same reason.

The exhibition is based on loans from collections such as th National Gallery, London, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art, NewYork, Kunsthaus Zurich and Kunstmuseum Basel - as well as many other museums and collectors in Europe and the USA.

The exhibition has been arranged by Poul Erik Tøjner, the director of Louisiana, and Dr. Felix Baumann, the former director of Kunsthaus Zurich and now the president of Alberto Giacometti Stiftung, Zurich. In connection with the exhibition a catalogue is being published in English and German by Hatje Cantz Verlag.

Sponsors
AUGUSTINUS FONDEN supports the exhibition.
DONG Energy is the principal sponsor of Louisiana's exhibitions.
Realdania is the sponsor of Louisiana's architectural exhibitions.
Nykredit is the sponsor of LOUISIANA.