Your Thoughts On Art

[Belacqua]

I think Cezanne painted some wonderfully beautiful paintings and some godawful paintings.

I think to be consistent, you have to say that he painted some pictures you like and some you don't. 

And that when you say "godawful," here, it means no more than that.

I have four books on Cezanne

Here I think if you're looking to establish your bona fides, it's better not to mention books of reproductions. Books are printed with printer's ink on paper, and the pictures have none of the qualities that oil paintings have. In a serious art history school, any hint that your knowledge of a work comes from reproductions will get you howled out of class. This is part of what Magritte's non-pipe is about, right? The reproduction of the thing is not the thing -- the book picture is an entirely different experience from the painting.