Paul Gauguin

A Beautiful collection of plates and text depicting Gauguin's work from 1848-1903.

Paul Gauguin fled what he called "filthy Europe" in 1891 to what he hoped would be an unspoiled paradise, Tahiti. He painted 66 magnificent can vases during the first two years he spent there and kept notes from which he later wrote Noa Noa—a journal recording his thoughts and impressions of that time. Noa Noa—the most widely known of Gauguin's writings—is reproduced here from a rare early edition (1919), in a lucid translation capturing the artist's unpretentious style. Page after page reveals Gauguin's keen observations of Tahiti and its people, and his passionate struggle to achieve the inner harmony he expressed so profoundly on canvas. Gauguin's prose is as seductive as his paintings, filled with descriptions of warm seas, hidden lagoons, lush green forests, and beautiful Maori women. The journal is captivating reading, offering a compelling autobiographical fragment of the soul of a genius and a rare glimpse of Oceanian culture. The brief periods of happiness Gauguin found among the Tahitians are eloquently expressed in his narrative. We understand the motives that drove him and gain a deeper appreciation of his art. Today the manuscript provides unparalleled insight into Gauguin's thoughts as he strove to achieve spiritual peace, and into the wellsprings of a singular artistic style which changed the course of modern art. This wonderfully affordable edition—enhanced by 24 of Gauguin's South Seas drawings—makes a unique and passionate testament accessible to all art lovers.

A collection of Gauguin's writings.

"Discontent with the decadent Parisian way of life, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and Charles Laval (1861-1894) escaped to the Caribbean island of Martinique in 1887. In the short time that they stayed on the island, they created a series of exquisite artworks. The trip had a huge impact on their further artistic development. The exhibition Gauguin & Laval in Martinique will feature the warm, vivid paintings, alongside their outstanding preliminary sketches and large, elaborate pastels. In their artworks, Gauguin and Laval pesented Martinique as an umcomplicated paradise. In doing so, they glossed over the harsh everyday reality of life on the island"--Museum website.

The special exhibition, Paul Gauguin "Why Are You Angry" will revisit the story of one of the most mythologised figures in French art, concentrating particularly on the works he created in Tahiti. The exhibition will shed new light on the museum's collection, juxtaposing the works with historical material from both Gauguin's past and his present, and with international contemporary art. The story of Gauguin the "savage", who in 1891 abandoned Paris, his Danish wife and his five children to pursue a spiritual, artistic journey in the South Pacific, is a highly-prized story in the history of Western art. The Glyptotek challenges this narrative and uses a diverse selection of historical archive material, visual art and literature in a deeper examination of how the works Gauguin created in Tahiti were not an isolated phenomenon, but part of a larger political and cultural landscape. For example, the exhibition will examine how Gauguin's art was influenced by the popularised myth of Tahiti, which had flourished even before Gauguin's departure for the South Pacific, kindled by a century of Western imperialism and cultural history. Exhibition: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark (19.11.2020 - 16.05.2021).

"As both art and history and enduring legend have shown, Gauguin's life in the South Seas was anything but ecstatic or peaceful, even as he created some of the most revolutionary and iconic objects of his time. This book, to date the most comprehensive volume of the painter's letters to be published in English, offers an uncensored glimpse into Gauguin's life, from his days as a young newlywed reporting on the birth of his first child, through his early developments as an artist, and finally throughout the extraordinary adventure of his years in Tahiti and the Marquesas. Gauguin's writings, from Noa Noa to his Intimate Journals, show him to be a talented, uninhibited literary stylist, as far ahead of his time in words as he was on canvas. Nowhere is this more evident than in these letters to many of his closest associates and, above all, to his wife Mette, for whom he detailed his plans, described artworks in progress, and gave running accounts of his life and states of mind on distant shores. Now back in print after many years, Letters to His Wife and Friends remains one of the most revealing epistolary autobiographies ever assembled."--BOOK JACKET.