UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 35, Page 1
June 20, 1996
Nina Kallmyer awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

     During the past year and this coming summer, art historian Nina
Athanassoglou-Kallmyer is journeying back in time to the world of
artist Paul Cezanne in Paris and Aix-en-Provence where he lived and
worked.
     To carry out her research, Athanassoglou-Kallmyer has received a
prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, which extends her sabbatical leave
from the University to two years. The Guggenheim fellowships were
awarded this year to only 158 scholars, artists and scientists from
2,791 applicants nationwide, based on "unusually distinguished
achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future
accomplishment."
     Her project is a book on the artist, Cezanne and the Land:
Regionalism and Modernity in Late 19th-century France, scheduled for
publication by the Princeton University Press in 1998. Although the
book will be lavishly illustrated, it is a scholarly work and not a
"coffee table book," she said.
     Athanassoglou-Kallmyer also was invited to participate in the
three-day "International Symposium: The Art and Influence of Paul
Cezanne," sponsored by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in conjunction
with its Cezanne exhibition. That major exhibition, which was first
shown in Paris and then moved to the Tate Museum in London, is on
display in Philadelphia-its only U.S. stop- through Sept. 1. More than
20 scholars from around the world, including art specialists from the
Musee d'Orsay in Paris and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg,
took part in the symposium, from May 31-June 2, and gave different
perspectives on the artist and his times.
     Athanassoglou-Kallmyer's topic was "Cezanne's Land: Ideology and
the End of Time," an interpretation of how the artist's landscapes
reflect the timelessness, as well as the history, of his native
Provence.
     Athanassoglou-Kallmyer first became interested in the artist when
a Cezanne exhibition was held at the National Gallery in 1990. Asked
to participate in a panel discussion by the gallery's Center for
Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, she discovered her concept of
Cezanne and his relationships with society differed from others.
     "Cezanne commonly has been portrayed as somewhat isolated from
the social and cultural milieu of his day, but my research has shown
the opposite was true. He was connected to and aware of intellectual,
social and artistic movements of the late 19th century. He knew poets,
writers, artists and politicians. In my research, I am trying to
reconstruct the cultural and social background of his life, which
illuminates his paintings in a different way," Athanassoglou-Kallmyer
said.
     Born in 1839, Cezanne studied painting with a local artist before
going to Paris, where he knew and exhibited with the impressionists,
such as Manet and Pisarro. As he matured, he moved away from
impressionism, evolving a style of his own, with an emphasis on
structure and form, influencing other artists such as Picasso and the
Cubist movement. He returned to Provence and continued painting
landscapes, portraits and still lifes until his death in 1906.
     Cezanne was a "superb artist and an important modernist,"
Athanassoglou-Kallmyer said. "I am trying to reconstruct the world he
lived in within the context of his contemporary cultural and political
setting and to reinterpret his subjects and his style of painting
against that background."
     In spite of a general strike in France this past winter that
crippled public transportation and other public services, she carried
out research in Paris, walking miles to do so. This summer, she will
continue to work there and then travel to Aix-en-Provence to visit the
artist's studio and home and the sites of his paintings and conduct
further research in local archives there and in Marseilles.
     Athanassoglou-Kallmyer has taught two graduate seminars on
Cezanne and has written two articles on the artist, one appearing in
Art Bulletin, the other in Art Journal, which led to her current
project.
     Born in Athens, Athanassoglou-Kallmyer grew up in Europe and has
had an interest in art since childhood. A graduate of the Sorbonne,
she received her doctorate from Princeton University. She is author of
French Images from the Greek War of Independence; Art and Politics
Under the Restoration and Eugene Delacroix-Prints, Politics and
Satire, both published by the Yale University Press.
                                                   -Sue Swyers Moncure