Read complete books and articles on: Paul Gauguin

Gauguin, Paul - pôl gōgăNˈ, 1848–1903, French painter and woodcut artist, b. Paris; son of a journalist and a French-Peruvian mother.

Early Life

Gauguin, Paul - pôl gōgăNˈ, 1848–1903, French painter and woodcut artist, b. Paris; son of a journalist and a French-Peruvian mother.

Early Life

Gauguin was first a sailor, then a successful stockbroker in Paris. In 1874 he began to paint on weekends. By the age of 35, with the encouragement of Camille Pissarro, he devoted himself completely to his art, having given up his position and separated (1885) from his wife and five children. Allying himself with the Impressionists, he exhibited with them from 1879 to 1886. The next year he sailed for Panama and Martinique. In protest against the "disease" of civilization, he determined to live primitively, but illness forced him to return to France. The next years were spent in Paris and Brittany, with a brief but tragic stay with Van Gogh at Arles.

Later Life and Art

In 1888, Gauguin and Émile Bernard proposed a synthetist theory of art, emphasizing the use of flat planes and bright, nonnaturalistic color in conjunction with symbolic or primitive subjects. The Yellow Christ (Albright-Knox Art Gall., Buffalo) is characteristic of this period. In 1891, Gauguin sold 30 canvases and with the proceeds went to Tahiti. There he spent two years living poorly, painting some of his finest pictures, and writing Noa Noa (tr. 1947), an autobiographical novel set in Tahiti. In 1893 he returned to France, collected a legacy, and exhibited his work, rousing some interest but making very little money. Disheartened and sick from syphilis, which had afflicted him for many years, he again set out for the South Seas in 1895. There his last years were spent in poverty, despair, and physical suffering. In 1897 he attempted suicide and failed, living to paint for five more years. He died on Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands.

Gauguin's Style and Impact on Modern Art

Today Gauguin is recognized as a highly influential founding father of modern art. He rejected the tradition of western naturalism, using nature as a starting point from which to abstract figures and symbols. He stressed linear patterns and remarkable color harmonies, imbuing his paintings with a profound sense of mystery. He revived the art of woodcutting with his free and daring knife work and his expressive, irregular shapes and strong contrasts. He produced some fine lithographs and a number of pottery pieces.

There are major examples of Gauguin's work in the United States, including The Day of the God (Art Inst., Chicago), Ia Orana Maria (1891; Metropolitan Mus.), By the Sea (1892; National Gall., Washington, D.C.), and his masterpiece Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? (1897; Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston). W. Somerset Maugham's Moon and Sixpence (1919), based loosely on the life of Gauguin, did much to promote the Gauguin legend that arose shortly after his death.

See his letters ed. by M. Malingue (tr. 1949); his intimate journals tr. by V. W. Brooks (1958); P. Gauguin, My Father, Paul Gauguin (tr. 1937); D. Sweetman, Paul Gauguin: A Complete Life (1995); M. M. Mathews, Paul Gauguin: An Erotic Life (2001); studies by R. J. Goldwater (1957), B. Danielsson (tr. 1965), and W. Andersen (1971).

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11 of the Best Books and Articles on: Paul Gauguin

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Van Gogh and Gauguin: Electric Arguments and Utopian Dreams » Read Now
by Bradley Collins. 258 pgs.

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This text explores the tumultuous relationship between two great masters of 19th-century painting, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, and the impact of that relationship on their art.
2.

Paul Gauguin (1928) » Read Now
by Robert Goldwater. 160 pgs.

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...PICTURE FOR TITLE AND COMMENTARY PAUL GAUGUIN TEXT BY ROBERT GOLDWATER...TABLE OF CONTENTS PAUL GAUGUIN BY ROBERT GOLDWATER 9...Gogh in the PHOTOGRAPH OF PAUL GAUGUIN. 1888...
3.

Post-Impressionism: From Van Gogh to Gauguin » Read Now
by John Rewald. 619 pgs.

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...POST-IMPRESSIONISM--FROM GAUGUIN TO MATISSE , New...SAME AUTHOR PAUL CEZANNE, LETTERS , London, 1941 PAUL GAUGUIN, LETTERS TO A...York, 1946 PAUL CEZANNE, CARNETS...Paris...
4.

Modern Art and Modernism: A Critical Anthology (Chap. 9 "From Gauguin and Van Gogh to Classicism") » Read Now
by Francis Frascina, Charles Harrison, Deirdre Paul. 312 pgs.

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5.

Modern Art and Society: An Anthology of Social and Multicultural Readings (Chap. 4 "Going Native: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of Primitivist Modernism") » Read Now
by Maurice Berger. 310 pgs.

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6.

The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History (Chap. 18 "Gauguin's Tahitian Body") » Read Now
by Norma Broude, Mary D. Garrard. 518 pgs.

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7.

Writing Marginality in Modern French Literature: From Loti to Genet (Chap. One "Without Obligation: Exotic Appropriation in Loti and Gauguin") » Read Now
by Edward J. Hughes. 209 pgs.

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Hughes explores how cultural centers require the peripheral, the outlawed, and the deviant in order to define and bolster themselves. He analyzes the hierarchies of cultural value that inform the work of six modern French writers: the exoticist Pierre Loti; Paul Gauguin, whose Noa Noa enacts...
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Hughes explores how cultural centers require the peripheral, the outlawed, and the deviant in order to define and bolster themselves. He analyzes the hierarchies of cultural value that inform the work of six modern French writers: the exoticist Pierre Loti; Paul Gauguin, whose Noa Noa enacts European fantasies about Polynesia; Proust, who analyzes such exemplary figures of exclusion and inclusion as the homosexual and the xenophobe; Montherlant; Camus, who pleads an alienating detachment from the cultures of both metropolitan France and Algeria; and Jean Genet.
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8.

The Impressionists (1937) (Chap. III "Degas, Gauguin, Lautrec") » Read Now
by Wilhelm Uhde, Ludwig Goldscheider. 180 pgs.

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...who must be mentioned here is Paul Gauguin. At Vollards in the Rue Laffitte...PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR: WASHERWOMEN 86. PAUL GAUGUIN: TROPICAL LANDSCAPE MARTINIQUE 87. PAUL...
9.

Martinique: In Gauguin's Footsteps, in Contemporary Review » Read Now
by Philip Vickers. 4 pgs.

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...which still recalls his stay. Paul Gauguin, and his painter companion Charles...Le Centre DArt Memorial Musee Paul Gauguin, whose moving spirit is Mme. Maiotte...and...
10.

South Sea Maidens: Western Fantasy and Sexual Politics in the South Pacific ("Gauguin: The Legend Revisited" begins on p. 87) » Read Now
by Michael Sturma. 194 pgs.

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From the first European contact with Tahiti in 1767, the myth of the South Sea maiden has endured through many incarnations. Although the maiden frequently provided an idealized antidote to Western women's self-assertion, the South Pacific also afforded a space where boundaries between the sexes...
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From the first European contact with Tahiti in 1767, the myth of the South Sea maiden has endured through many incarnations. Although the maiden frequently provided an idealized antidote to Western women's self-assertion, the South Pacific also afforded a space where boundaries between the sexes could be relaxed and transgressed. From James Cook and Captain Bligh to James Michener and Margaret Mead, the "Island girl" has occupied a special place in the erotic imagination of the West. In a sweeping study that embraces history, literature, visual arts, anthropology and film, this study gives fresh insight into the myths and reality of a Western icon.
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11.

A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art ("Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903)" begins on p. 231) » Read Now
by Ian Chilvers. 670 pgs.

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From Renoir and Picasso to Red Grooms and Guerrilla Girls, this is the most useful reference work on twentieth-century art available in a one volume. Compiled by Ian Chilvers, the editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Art, it is both authoritative and accessible, with generous use of anecdote and clear...
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From Renoir and Picasso to Red Grooms and Guerrilla Girls, this is the most useful reference work on twentieth-century art available in a one volume. Compiled by Ian Chilvers, the editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Art, it is both authoritative and accessible, with generous use of anecdote and clear explanations of many potentially confusing terms. Providing broad coverage of painting, sculpture, drawing, and the applied arts, the dictionary has major entries on the important movements and styles of the twentieth century, including Dada, Cubism, Surrealism, Art Deco, Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Body and Performance art, and Neo Expressionism. In addition there are entries on art schools and galleries, exhibitions and prizes, terms and techniques. The biographies feature not only artists but also collectors, critics, dealers, and patrons. And though the dictionary concentrates on the great names, it is not confined to the mainstream of modern art, featuring many artists working in a more popular tradition as well as interesting peripheral figures (such as the forger Elmyr de Hory). This up to date and informative guide is an essential reference for anyone interested in modern art.
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