Gauguin Tahiti

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Overview

The life of Paul Gauguin is one of the richest and most mythic in the history of Western art. A banker and "Sunday painter," he left behind family and homeland and sailed to the South Seas, seeking a life "in ecstasy, in peace, and for art." Gauguin Tahiti, the first major retrospective of the artist's work in fifteen years, offers an in-depth study of the fabled Polynesian years that have so defined our image of the painter. Alongside essays by leading American and French critics on every aspect of Gauguin's ...
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Overview

The life of Paul Gauguin is one of the richest and most mythic in the history of Western art. A banker and "Sunday painter," he left behind family and homeland and sailed to the South Seas, seeking a life "in ecstasy, in peace, and for art." Gauguin Tahiti, the first major retrospective of the artist's work in fifteen years, offers an in-depth study of the fabled Polynesian years that have so defined our image of the painter. Alongside essays by leading American and French critics on every aspect of Gauguin's art, from the legendary canvases to his sculptures, ceramics, and innovative graphic works, are discussions of the Polynesian society, culture, and religion that helped shape them; an in-depth biographical narrative of the artist's life, with the many epiphanies, frustrations, and discoveries that make his time in the South Seas one of the most mythologically potent episodes in the history of Western art; and a chronicle of his changing fortunes in the century since his death. At the center of it all is Gauguin's 1897 masterpiece, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, the summation and crowning glory of his mature career, presented with unprecedented depth and authority. Over one hundred years later, Gauguin remains one of the most enigmatic and attractive figures of 19th-century art, the very pivot of modernism, and Gauguin Tahiti finally portrays this crucial period of his life in all its color and drama.
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Editorial Reviews

Hilton Kramer
The most exhaustive account of the period that has ever been attempted in a single survey ... well-written, scrupulously documented, and lavishly illustrated.
—New York Observer
John Richardson
This excellent catalogue sets the record straight.
—Vanity Fair
The Art Newspaper
Attractively designed and profusely illustrated ... provides an excellent narrative of the last dozen years of Gauguin's life.
Library Journal
"Perhaps I loved paintings too much," Gauguin was reported to comment in a rare fit of self-incrimination shortly before his death in 1903. These two works commemorate the centenary of his death at age 54 in the Marquesas Islands. Cachin, former director of the Musee d'Orsay, updated her earlier work on Gauguin, first published in 1968, in a large-format volume issued in 1990. The 2004 version is essentially identical to the 1990 edition in text, layout, plates and reproductions, photos, and captions. One new title is added to the bibliography, thus ignoring substantial newer Gauguin research, such as Daniel Wildenstein's two-volume catalogue raisonn of the paintings. Without significant revisions, it remains a readable and perceptive narrative and critique of Gauguin's much-storied life, career, artistic development, oeuvre in various media, and influences on other artists. The chronology is heavily illustrated with photos, and the color plates are exceptional, even more so here than in the 1990 edition, as high-gloss white paper is used throughout. Gauguin Tahiti pays homage to Gauguin's two long residences in French Polynesia. The exhibit of over 200 paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures, and decorative objects-including the revered masterpiece Where Do We Come From?, now hanging in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts-opened at the Grand Palais, Paris, last fall and continues in Boston through June 2004. The delightful and informative catalog concentrates on the works themselves, their power, and the contexts in which they were conceived. Eight scholars, under the direction of Shackelford (chair, art of Europe, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and Freches-Thory (chief curator, Musee d'Orsay), contribute 16 essays slotted into four sections: "First Polynesian Sojourn (1891-93)," "Return to France (1893-95)," "Second Polynesian Sojourn (1895-1903)," and "After 1903." Nearly every essay could stand alone as a separate journal article. There is considerable new scholarship represented, particularly in the essays that deal with individual works of art and in the final essays detailing Victor Segalen's role in preserving the carved panels from The House of Pleasure and other of Gauguin's Polynesian oeuvre. Isabelle Cahn ably summarizes Gauguin's belated recognition in France in the first half of the 20th century. Cachin's book is an essential purchase for libraries lacking the 1990 edition, while Gauguin Tahiti is an important catalog purchase for all libraries with Western art collections.-Russell T. Clement, Northwestern Univ. Lib., Evanston, IL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780878466665
  • Publisher: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  • Publication date: 3/28/2004
  • Pages: 372
  • Sales rank: 569,507
  • Product dimensions: 9.54 (w) x 11.36 (h) x 1.32 (d)

Table of Contents

Director's Foreword
Acknowledgments
Lenders to the Exhibition
Introduction
I The First Polynesian Sojourn, June 1891-June 1893 15
The Paintings of the First Polynesian Sojourn 17
Gauguin: Artist and Ethnographer 47
Sculpture of the First Voyage 67
II The Return to France, August 1893-June 1895 81
The Exhibition at Durand-Ruel 83
Noa Noa: The Voyage to Tahiti 91
"Shapes and Harmonies of Another World" 115
Oviri 135
III The Second Polynesian Sojourn, September 1895-May 1903 143
The Return to Paradise: Tahiti, 1895-1897 145
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 167
"I Have Everything a Modest Artist Could Cold Wish" 205
"Catholicism and the Modern Mind": The Painter as Writer in Late Career 223
Splendor and Misery: Gauguin in the Marquesas Islands 243
IV After 1903 261
The House of Pleasure 263
Koke and Tepeva: Victor Segalen in Gauguin's Footsteps 273
Belated Recognition: Gauguin and France in the Twentieth Century, 1903-1949 285
V Appendixes 303
Gauguin in the Vollard Archives 305
Notes 312
Chronology of Gauguin's Life, 1848-1903 340
Checklist and Figure Illustrations 350
Index to Works by Gauguin 365
Subject Index 368
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