Cézanne

The Father of Modern Art — a once-in-a-generation retrospective in Basel – 25 January – 25 May 2026

For the first time in its history, the Fondation Beyeler in Basel is devoting a monographic exhibition to Paul Cézanne — a pioneer of modern art and one of the central figures in its collection. The show focuses on the artist’s final and most decisive phase, when his singular vision found its fullest expression. Curated by Ulf Küster, Senior Curator at the Fondation Beyeler, the exhibition brings together around 80 works.

The exhibition showcases Cézanne at the height of his expressive maturity: enigmatic portraits, idyllic scenes of bathers, viscerally evocative landscapes of Provence, and endlessly renewed depictions of his favourite motif, the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. Among the highlights are nine depictions of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, as well as the rare joint presentation of two of Cézanne’s depictions of card players — one from the Courtauld Gallery in London, the other from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Half of the paintings on display are loans from private collections, many of which are rarely seen in public. The exhibition traces how Cézanne developed his revolutionary method of building form through pure colour — what he called sensations colorantes — laying the groundwork for Cubism, Fauvism, and virtually every major movement of the 20th century. As Pablo Picasso once said, Cézanne was the father of us all.

On kunstfinder.com you’ll find Cézanne’s key works catalogued with full details — museum locations, techniques, and links to high-resolution images. Use the artist page as your companion to this exhibition.