Gauguin – Maker of Myth

The Gauguin exhibit was well worth a visit – this exhibition, recently on at the Tate Modern, had an extensive amount of Paul Gauguin’s work, exhibited in thematic sections, rather than dry chronological order, the curators managed to bring to life Gauguin’s explorations and approach to his work. I found that I could engage with the work much more freely- through the themed sections and really get into the mind set and style of the artist.

The exhibit portrayed Gauguin as an explorer who travelled extensively, he seemed to draw upon a huge array of visual and literary sources he brought ancient myth, philosophy, sculpture, religion, and non western art forms into his pieces – whatever his preferred view of the scenes and subjects that he painted, he would weave them in, he took the world and painted it as he wanted to see it. This is much as he took life –he came across as a somewhat stubborn and self absorbed man, fighting regularly with the Tahitian officials, refusing to pay tax and taking a Tahitian wife as well as one at home, there was also the suggestion of a 15 year old Tahitian lover.

I enjoyed how Gauguin was a natural story teller- how he drew narratives into his paintings not just from the wide array of sources that he pulled into them from his fascinations, but with his combined use of words and image. Gauguin’s Paintings are often carefully named providing the catalyst needed to sum up the story he wanted it to tell. His paintings with Tahitian titles conjured up remote and exotic lands for western eyes – whilst their content often depicted a world where Tahiti was still immersed in ancient myth and religion, the way he wanted it to be, where as the reality of crusaders meant that much of Tahiti was catholic. His Painting ‘What! Are You Jealous?’ evokes a little drama between the two Tahitian woman lazing half naked together , or perhaps it evokes drama in the viewer suggesting the idyllic life of Tahiti, so exotic and so far away, mocking you?

I also enjoyed how Gauguin affected and controlled his own self image. The theme of ‘Identity and Self-Mythology’ showed how he carefully constructed and then re-constructed his image time and time again, ‘from bourgeois banker and family man to bohemian martyr and the notorious ‘savage’ of later years’. Just as with Gauguin’s other paintings, he created the image just as he wanted it to be seen. The portraits are a carefully constructed public image and perhaps are also a struggle to understand his own shifting identity throughout his life.

A very complex man who seemed to absorb as much experience as he could from life and then remake it in the fashion that he saw fit; a kind of continued exploration of the experiences that life could give him.