Carving by Paul Gaugin

 

I visited the quirky but impressive Gauguin exhibition at the National Gallery.

Some of the Tahitian paintings are genuinely "iconic" but certainly worth viewing in real life, where they're a ton more wonderful than in the familiar reproductions.

 In my great ignorance, I had not a shred of knowledge of Gauguin's carvings, and was frankly, dazzled by their beauty. Illustrations do scant justice. Even more than the paintings, the sculptures need to be seen. (They also need to be handled, but art galleries don't exactly encourage tactile familiarity. I hate the nasty beeper that goes off when you I bring my near-sighted eyes close to the object.)

"Soyez amoureuses," one of Gauguin's most interesting carvings, is made of painted linden wood.  It's a hefty 97cm x 75cm. Here's what the artist said of it:

I have been working for 2 months on a large (painted wood) carving and I'm bold enough to believe it's the best thing I've done up to now as far as strength and balance are concerned (although the literary side of it seems crazy to many people. A monster, who looks like me, is holding a naked woman by the hand -- that's the main subject.  The spaces are filled by smaller figures.) At the top there's a town, some sort of Babylon, and at the bottom the countryside with a few imaginary flowers (a desolate old woman) and a fox, the prophetic animal of perversity among the Indians... Despite the inscription, the people look sad, in contradiction to the title.

Like Blake and Yeats, Gauguin had developed his own private mythology.

The sculpture was exhibited in Brussels in 1891 and provoked a "critical storm" -- but what sort of tempest my catalog don't say. 

This carving was lent to the National Gallery by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston which apparently has other Gauguin sculptures.

Now I have an incentive for another visit to New England.

Comments

[Aidan Cooper]

I read your comments about Gauguin's carvings and certainly agree. I have a carved mother of Pearl shell depicting Le Cheval Blanc and it is far superior to the painting in the Musee D'Orsay.

[Herm]

Was I supposed to know the answer before I Googled it? I didn't.

That's the problem with such quizzes today. An answer is just a click away.

Well, I know, but I'm not telling.

Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise!