| Articles by: Artist |
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| Articles by: Movement |
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| Articles by: Painting Name |
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Paul Gauguin (June 7, 1848 - May 8, 1903)
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"Art is either
plagiarism or revolution."
- Paul Gauguin
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Self-Portrait
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Paul Gauguin
is one of the best French painters of the Post
Impressionist period. He gained much recognition
for developing a conceptual method for representation
of subjects – colorful, vibrant, almost
cruel, and lacking emotions in general. |
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Paul
Gauguin, born in Paris, was the only son
of Clovis Gauguin, a firebrand republican journalist
in France and a writer mother. Due to his father’s
political activities, the family was forced to
go into exile in 1849. During the journey, Gauguin’s
father passed away and the family decided to stay
in Lima for the next four years. The years in
Lima left a deep impact on the artist. |
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After
six years in French merchant navy (1865 -1871),
Gauguin settled down with his wealthy guardian,
Gustave Arosa, who was a huge art collector. This
period was pivotal in Gauguin’s life, because
he recognized his desire to be artist.
In 1882, after a successful
stint as a stockbroker, Gauguin turned to painting
full-time with the help of his friend and an Impressionist
painter, Camille Pissaro.
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Paul Gauguin paintings
are a mix of broken and rhythmic brush strokes
and use of texture and color that reflect his
deep interest in the art and technique of the
Impressionists. In 1887, Gauguin decided to leave
France and head to Panama along with fellow painter
Charles Laval. But, in early 1888, he returned
to Brittany and with Theo VanGogh’s support,
began painting with renewed confidence. Soon,
he began painting original interpretations of
life in Brittany. |
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Paul Gauguin’s earliest masterpieces
include ‘Visions after the Sermon’
(1888) and ‘Where Do We Come From? What
Are We? Where Are We Going?’ (1897-98),
and this was also the time when he became part
of the Impressionist movement. So inspired was
he by the era of Impressionism that he spent money
buying works of artists such as Manet, Sisley,
Renoir, and Monet.
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Paul Gauguin paintings all have the
appearance of a time of flight away from civilization,
in search of new ways to love. Paul Gauguin
paintings also evoke, at times primitive,
at times realistic, and almost always, sincere
feelings in the viewers. He was a radical in his
own life. Struggling to come to terms with the
ways of a solid middle-class world, abandoning
his wife (she moved back to Denmark with their
five children) and family, his career to pursue
his passion – painting, refusal to accept
praise, gains, or glory for his works are some
of the more fascinating and tragic aspects of
his life.
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of Paul Gauguin paintings depict life in
Tahiti in a realistic manner; painting primitive
art, with two dimensional forms and violent colors
that depict the gay abandon of untamed nature
at her best. Paul Gauguin painted ‘Two
Women on the Beach’ (1891) shortly after
he traveled to Tahiti for the first time. He came
back to the place again in 1895 and remained here
until his death. |
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Paul Gauguin’s
artistic sentimentalities gave birth to a movement
called Symbolism by Jean Moreas and explained
as “trend of the creative in spirit of art.”
Gauguin’s art can be best described as having
the ability ‘to clothe an idea in a visible
form.’ |
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| After all, Paul Gauguin paintings
are statements of depicting his outer world in a
way that interprets his inner dreams by symbolic
representation using decorative forms such as lines
and colors. |
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"In
art, all who have done something other than their
predecessors have merited the epithet of revolutionary;
and it is they alone who are masters."
– Paul Gauguin |
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