Artist+as+Alchemist

Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist


Vase in the Form of Leda and the Swan, 1887–88 Partially glazed stoneware decorated with slip 22.9 × 20.3 × 20.3 cm (9 × 8 × 8 inch)

"Since the late nineteenth century, artists have been looking closely, appreciatively - and often imitatively - at so-called primitive, archaic and ethnographic art, that is, art originating outside the mainstream of Western culture in technologically backward societies. Perhaps the most familiar example of this attraction of the primitives for the moderns is Paul Gauguin. His flight to Tahiti and exploration of Maori art are legendary. And his use of Japanese, Persian, Egyptian and Gambodian models has also been thoroughly documented. But Gauguin's relation to pre-Golumbian art, especially ancient Peruvian art, the foundation of his inclination to the exotic, has been sorely overlooked.' It is often forgotten that Gauguin had Peruvian ancestry and spent his formative years in that country. In fact, he remained fascinated with this 'Indian' side of his identity all his life, and empathized strongly, in his earlier crafts, particularly his little-known ceramic pieces, but also in his paintings, right to the end, with his exotic origins. This sense of identification informs his personality and attitudes to life, as well as the practice of his art."

// BARBARA BRAUN, 1986 // //"PAUL GAUGUIN'S INDIAN IDENTITY: HOW ANCIENT PERUVIAN POTTERY INSPIRED HIS ART //

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[|Paul Gauguin]

[|French, 1848-1903]









Head with Horns, 1895 - 1897, Paul Gauguin. Sandalwood with traces of polychromy on a lacewood base. 8 11/16 × 9 × 4 3/4 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum. 2002.18







http://www.science20.com/news_articles/gauguin_as_experimental_printmaker_analyzed-153240
Surface Shape Studies of the Art of Paul Gauguin 