The work of Paul Gauguin receives fresh examination in two shows on view this spring. A collaboration between the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s de Young Museum and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen brings Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey to the Bay Area.
“It is the first exhibition at the Fine Arts Museums dedicated to the work of Paul Gauguin, and it is the first at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek to present the collection in dialogue with period Pacific art from the islands where Gauguin worked,” Christina Hellmich, Curator in Charge of Africa, Oceania and the Americas and the Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, said.
More than fifty paintings, ceramics, and wood carvings from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek will be exhibited alongside important works on paper by Gauguin and art of the Pacific Islands from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s own collection. The exhibit can be seen through April 7 before moving to Copenhagen.
Gauguin (1848-1903) stands firmly among the short list of artists most responsible for paving the way to what art would become in the 20th Century. The full–sometimes surprising–scope of his artistic genius is on display in Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey according to Hellmich.
He continually worked to explore new ideas and push boundaries of technique and style in pursuit of critical recognition and commercial success. This is revealed through the range of works in the exhibition, such as Woman Sewing, Gauguin’s first nude subject, shown at the sixth Impressionist exhibition in 1881, plus one of his most well-known portraits, Tahitian Woman with a Flower (Vahine no te tiare), from 1891. It was one of the first paintings Gauguin produced after his arrival in Tahiti.
He absorbed ideas, challenged them, and then adapted them for his own artistic pursuits. He always sought to innovate with his use of materials—clay, paper, paint, wood and canvas. A remarkable addition to the exhibition are fifteen clay vessels and forms that Gauguin modeled by hand rather than on the wheel. He referred to them as both 'sculptures' and 'monstrosities.'"
Across the country in Sarasota, Florida, it is not an art museum, but a botanical gardens shining its spotlight on the titan of Post-Impressionism.
“Paul Gauguin is a renowned artist who has been studied and interpreted many, many times, but never through the lens of his connection to nature at a botanical garden,” Jennifer Rominiecki, President & CEO of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, said. “Our ‘Living Museum’ crosses disciplines with horticultural displays, garden vignettes, as well as artwork to truly evoke the paradise Gauguin sought both literally and figuratively.”
Opened in February and running through June, the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens exhibits Gauguin: Voyage to Paradise.
While the Selby’s gardens and Tropical Conservatory will recreate Gauguin’s artistic palette through flowering plants and displays of palms, ferns and fruit trees, the on-site Museum of Botany and the Arts will showcase his hand-carved, Polynesian-inspired woodcuts and other rarely seen works in a variety of mediums.
“Gauguin is famous for his journeys–especially to French Polynesia,” Rominiecki said. “Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is uniquely positioned to summon what inspired Gauguin there. Our world-class tropical collections coupled with our grounds, surrounded on three sides by sparkling blue waters, truly recreate Gauguin's ideal version of paradise."
Any modern inspection of Gauguin’s work seems incomplete without some attention given to his Bohemian–to employ an extreme euphemism–lifestyle. Abhorrent may be more appropriate.
Gauguin was a stockbroker who left the profession in his 30s to pursue an art career. His job in finance provided his family a comfortable existence. Comfortable enough that Gauguin had himself compiled a noteworthy collection of Impressionist artwork from many of the movement’s principles including Manet, Monet, Cezanne and Camille Pissaro.
Gauguin, however, was unsuccessful commercially as an artist in his day, plunging he, his wife and their five children into poverty, forcing them to leave France, settling in Denmark nearer her parents. Whether Gauguin’s wife kicked him out of the house in Copenhagen or he abandoned them is a matter of conjecture; either way, Gauguin left his family in search of his "primitive" paradise.
That is how he famously ended up in Tahiti. While there, he took on multiple child lovers, as young as 13 and 14-years-old. Paul Gauguin, celebrated art god, was a pedophile.
He fathered numerous children with his mistresses both in the tropics and France. He carried syphilis, surely spreading the disease among his numerous sexual partners. It was syphilis which would primarily contribute to his early death at age 54.
How do we square his sordid lifestyle for which he should be assailed, with his brilliant art for which he has been canonized?
Hellmich tries.
Gauguin in his own words was an ‘infidel,’ a ‘monster,’ ‘a savage, a wolf in the woods without a collar.’ It is challenging to consider the talent and accomplishments of Gauguin through the prism of our own times. (Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey) frames the important work of Gauguin within a narrative that examines his sources of inspiration, support and encouragement, but also presents the facts about his personal life as they are known to us at this time. As we share the stories of artists from the past, we gain insight into social norms of the time and hope to also acknowledge his failings, both by the standards of his own times and by ours today."
While estranged for most of their marriage, Gauguin and his wife, Mette Sophie Gad, never divorced. Throughout his career, she played an important role receiving his work from where he was painting, organizing exhibitions of his work and selling what of it she could.
The freshest take upon Gauguin in these shows is a role reversal. A special feature of Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey is a video, First Impressions: Paul Gauguin, by the interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara.
This new work was commissioned by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Filmed in Samoa, it introduces Fa’afafine—of the Indigenous queer minority in Sāmoan culture—sharing their “first impressions” of Gauguin’s works, thus returning the colonial gaze of Gauguin back upon the artist and Western culture.
Art lovers visiting San Francisco for the Gauguin show should consider the nearby Tilden Hotel for accommodations. The Tilden Hotel spotlights one local artist and his or her work in its lobby with an ever-changing eight week showcase. Free, public opening receptions are held on the first Tuesday of every other month to introduce hotel guests and locals to the artist receiving the hotel’s spotlight.
