The exotic culture of the South
Sea Islands held a powerful fascinatio for Gauguin, who
chose strange, vivid colours to express the beauty and the
mystery he experienced there.
Paul Gauguin was in his early twenties when he took up painting. At first art was no more than a hobby, but he admired and bought the work of the early Impressionists, and based his own style on theirs. As his dedication grew, however, Gauguin soon realized that although these artists, with their bright colours and bold technique, had freed painting from traditional bonds, Impressionism too was limited in scope. Gradually he moved forward to develop the ideas that made him with Van Gogh and Cezanne one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionist artists.
Paul Gauguin was in his early twenties when he took up painting. At first art was no more than a hobby, but he admired and bought the work of the early Impressionists, and based his own style on theirs. As his dedication grew, however, Gauguin soon realized that although these artists, with their bright colours and bold technique, had freed painting from traditional bonds, Impressionism too was limited in scope. Gradually he moved forward to develop the ideas that made him with Van Gogh and Cezanne one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionist artists.
The Impressionists had painted
the natural world with vividness and directness. But Gauguin was fascinated by
ideas more than appearance and wanted his art to express strong emotions:
'Where does the execution of a picture start, where does it end? At the moment
when intense feelings are found in the depth of one's being, when they erupt,
and thought flows forth like lava from a volcano. Cold and rational calculation
have nothing to do with this eruption, for who knows when, in the depths of his
being, the work was begun, perhaps unconsciously?' To express such intensity of
feeling, Gauguin had to develop a radically new style of painting.
He rejected the idea that a
painting had to represent something we can see in the real world, and drew
fresh inspiration from non-European art Gauguin was one of the first artists to
take a serious interest in 'primitive' cultures. He spoke of his own 'savage
blood', and, perhaps recalling his childhood in Peru, he felt a strong affinity
for the vigour of prehistoric Central and South American art. He saw numerous
examples of this type of work at the Paris World's Fair of 1889. REVOLUTIONARY COLOUR
Gauguin also looked for
inspiration to Egyptian and Cambodian sculpture, to medieval art and to
Japanese prints. He collected postcards of painting and sculpture in a way that
is now commonplace among artists and students, but which at the time was novel.
In the expressive power of his colour, however, Gauguin went beyond any of his
sources. The Vision after the Sermon, one of his most revolutionary
paintings, used bright red completely unnaturalistically to set the emotional
tone of the painting one of visionary intensity.
Gauguin's technique in the
Tahiti paintings was no less distinctive than his composition. Materials were
not easily available, so he often had to use coarse sacking rather than proper
canvas, spreading his paint thinly to make it go further. From adversity he
extracted inspiration, for the limitations of his materials forced him to paint
with a rough vigour appropriate to his bold vision.
When Gauguin died in 1903, very
few people would have agreed with his words in a letter to his wife: `I am a
great artist and I know it. It is because I am, that I have endured such
suffering.' Three years after his death, however, 227 of his works were shown
in a major exhibition in Paris; this firmly established his reputation among
more progressive artists and his subsequent influence on 20th-century art has
been immense. The emotional impact of his work and his complete dedication to
art whatever the cost in personal suffering have made him, like his friend Van
Gogh, one of the cult heroes of modern times. Writer – Marshall Cavendish
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