Tenth Annual Eleanor and Frank Freed Lecture
Cézanne Effects in Latin America: From Diego Rivera to Jesús Rafael Soto

Presented by James Oles, senior lecturer, art department, and adjunct curator of Latin American art, Davis Museum, Wellesley College

In Latin America as elsewhere, modern artists’ dependence on Paul Cézanne was profound and even predictable. Many ambitious artists encountered Cézanne’s work, either directly or through their teachers, and began creating landscapes, still lifes, and portraits inspired by the French master’s idiosyncratic style.

Yet the Latin American fascination with Cézanne was neither unilateral nor monolithic. Following tentative citations of Cézanne during their youth, both Diego Rivera and Jesús Rafael Soto explicitly acknowledged that their mature careers were also built on Cézannean foundations, even if the connections are harder to see today. James Oles explores in detail the Cézanne effects in muralism and kineticism, two of the most innovative artistic movements practiced by Latin American artists in the 20th century.

This lecture is open to the public. Admission is free. A reception to meet the speaker follows.

About the Speaker
James Oles divides his time between the United States and Mexico. He is the author of numerous books and essays on modern Mexican art, including "Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco" (Museum of Modern Art, 2011). He also curated the first major retrospective exhibition on Pedro Friedeberg, which opened in Mexico City in 2009. A new version of the show is scheduled to travel to the United States in the near future.

This lecture is the first of two that comprise the Tenth Annual Eleanor and Frank Freed Lecture Series, made possible by endowment income from the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation. The 2012 Freed Lectures are presented in conjunction with the exhibition Modern and Contemporary Masterworks from Malba - Fundación Costantini. The lecture series concludes on June 14, 2012, at 6:30 p.m., when Lowery Stokes Sims, curator at the Museum of Arts and Design, talks about the work of Cuban artist Wifredo Lam.