No comments about Gauguin's Letters from the South Seas.

1 comments about Gauguin's Skirt.

1. I read this just before reading Rebecca Solnit's "River of Shadows: Edweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West," and the parallels were manifold. Like hers, this is more than even expanded biography: it places Gauguin's South Sea quest in a historical and social context, discusses the mythologies of exoticism and primitivism, two cultural phenomena of late nineteenth century Europe, and explores how they contributed to Gauguin's complex and often self-contradictory identity. Eisenman has taken care to become familiar with Tahitian culture and mores, both then and now, and gives us the locals' views of Gauguin into the bargain.

   As a painter, I was intimate with Gauguin's oeuvre and was familiar enough with his life (though I hadn't read Sweetman's definitive biography), and this both extended my understanding of the man and enhanced my enjoyment of the work.

   The writer, a polymath with a rather academic style, isn't the compelling writer that Solnit is (hence 4 rather than 5 stars) but his subject is no less fascinating, the challenge of showing his subject simultaneously in the context of fin-de-siecle colonialism and European Modernism no less daunting. A very interesting approach to understanding a unique artist, one who justifies it totally.

No comments about Paul Gauguin (Artists in Their Time).

No comments about Gauguin woodcuts.

5 comments about Paul Gauguin.

1. New and up-to-date information that will surprise lovers of Gauguin's art. You'll really understand who he was after reading this wonderfully thorough masterfully written piece of research. It made me feel like I was traveling with Gauguin, suffering his pain and in the end feeling the triumphs of his achievements. Very colorful.



2. I am disappointed to see that this book is out of print but if you have any interest in Gauguin whatsoever, you should try to get your hands on a copy. This is such an excellent book! Mr. Sweetman has clearly done his homework and he writes beautifully. By the time you finish this book you will feel as though you knew Gauguin for, as much as such a thing is possible, Mr. Sweetman gets you inside the artist's head so that you know what he was thinking and what he was feeling at all the important points of his life. The author gives a very balanced view of Gauguin and of the important people in his life, including his wife Mette. Gauguin is not portrayed as a saint. Mr. Sweetman does not let him off the hook for the shabby way he sometimes treated his friends and family. In other words, this behavior is not excused just because Gauguin was a brilliant artist. On the other hand, Gauguin is not demonized for his irresponsible behavior either, as he sometimes could be a caring person and a good friend. Gauguin left notebooks and correspondence, so when Mr. Sweetman gives you his interpretations of the meanings of some of Gauguin's greatest paintings he is not whistling in the dark. Gauguin himself is oftimes present to tell you what he was trying to do. One of the nice things about the book is that it does not focus exclusively on Gauguin. You learn what what was going on in the Paris art world. There is interesting information given about other artists, such as Camille Pissarro and Emile Bernard and you also learn about some of the art dealers, such as Durand-Ruel and Vollard. You are given in depth information of what was going on in the French communities on Tahiti and in the Marquesas. Mr. Sweetman also provides a sympathetic and reasonable explanation for Gauguin's behavior following the death of Vincent Van Gogh. As Mr. Sweetman says in the book, the picture most people have of Gauguin is based almost completely on the portrayal by Anthony Quinn in the 1950's movie "Lust For Life". If you read this wonderful book you will get a much more well-rounded picture of what this very complicated man was truly like.



3. Brilliant biographer David Sweetman has created a masterpiece with his biography of Gauguin. I don't know how he did it; but I was in awe throughout the reading of this well-thought-out and researched book. Gauguin was a complicated man; and through his exhaustive research, Sweetman gives us the rare opportunity to journey with one of the most colourful and oft-misunderstood artists in history. There are so many new facts uncovered in this book... I could feel the spirit of Gauguin rise up and rebel... http://www.mystic-art.com



4. I am a voracious reader with some knowledge of art history, but after attempting to read this book for the last six months, I am finally stopping at the half-way mark. It is certainly full of new facts and demonstrates an exhaustive amount of research, but I find Sweetman's narrative plodding and unorganized. Also, the book pre-supposes the reader's depth of knowledge on the subject -- the lack of which is quite obviously my problem in enjoying the book.



5. This is a disturbing story. My previous knowledge of Paul Gauguin basically came from a subway ad for the New York School of Visual Arts, which stated that at age 35 he was working as a bank teller. Being a late-bloomer myself, I wanted to know more. Although this is a long book (565 pages of text plus notes and index), it never got tiring for me. I remained fascinated all the way through. Gauguin created some wonderful works, but I really would not want to have known him. He comes across as very childish and irresponsible (which is perhaps a characteristic that all artists share to some degree). His journeys to Brittany and the South Seas are rendered in detail as Sweetman unflinchingly documents Gauguin's descent into drug addiction, madness and destitution. Sweetman also deftly analyzes Gauguin's work and the impact of those influences, creating a vivid portrait of the artist and his world. Parts of the book are horrifying, especially the descriptions of Gauguin's syphillis-ravaged body. Gauguin was a strange man and his story is an unsettling one. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. The book has many black-and-white photographs of Gauguin and his milieu as well as color reproductions of several of the works discussed. This book will guarantee a deeper appreciation of Gauguin's work.

4 comments about Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art.

1. "Christ alone -- of all the philosophers, Magi, etc. -- has affirmed, as a principal certainty, eternal life, the infinity of time, the nothingness of death, the necessity and the raison d'etre of serenity and devotion. He lived serenely, as a greater artist than all other artists, despising marble and clay as well as color, working in living flesh. That is to say, this matchless artist, hardly to be conceived of by the obtuse instrument of our modern, nervous, stupefied brains, made neither statues nor pictures nor books; he loudly proclaimed that he made... living men, immortals. This is serious, especially because it is the truth." Vincent van Gogh wrote these words in a long letter to Emile Bernard, his close friend and painter. He wrote them in Arles, where was working particularly hard, at the end of June 1888. The greatest artistic achievements where still before him, as well as unexpected illness and pity death. Debora Silverman exhibits to us another great event of Vincent's life: short and vehement artistic friendship with Paul Gaugain, that inspired Vincent much and may be even more costed. They knew and write each other for some years. They spent together same weeks in Arles working and fiercely discussing many artistic topics. Unexpectedly, in a while of serious depression Vincent decided to punish his comrade. With dark intentions in the mind he even picked up a razor. But his own illness won. Next day Gaugin found him laying unconscious, all in blood, with one ear cut. Silverman asks how possible was this strange and strangely fruitful friendship. She explores complicated cultural and religious background of both the painters. "I was intrigued -- writes in the Introduction -- by how Gauguin may have assimilated from his seminary training certain mental habits and attitudes toward the visual that were profoundly discordant with those I had identified in van Gogh's formative period in his Dutch theological culture, and I suspected that these distinctive mentalities had implications for the form and content of their work". There have been no similar studies up now. Religious life of Vincent van Gogh have been explored only very recently by Tsukasha Kodera (Vincent van Gogh. Christianity versus nature), Katheleen Power Erickson (At Eternity's Gate), Cliff Edwards (Van Gogh and God) and others, but never in relation to the southern France Catholicism, in atmosphere of which Vincent spent his recent years. Catholic background of Gaugin himself is even less known. Their mutual cultural and religious interferences, and their own personal achievements of this field finally received an abundant and complete description grace to Silverman research.



2. a work of genius and a pleasure to read. this book is essential for any museumgoer and the general reader with any interest in either artist. revealing the mutual respect and support between two very different men, with outstanding illustrations and insightful prose. i cannot remember any art history book so erudite and approachable.



3. Although a non-scholar, I have a keen interest in art history and thus was delighted to receive a copy of this book as a holiday gift from my daughter. The subtitle indicates Silverman's thematic objective: To examine "the search for sacred art." She provides her reader with a brilliantly written narrative during which she shares a wealth of information about Van Gogh and Gauguin, of course, in combination with hundreds of illustrations (many in full-color) which are skillfully correlated with the text. Here is how the material is organized:

   Part One: Toward Collaboration [two "Self-Portraits"]

   Part Two: Peasant Subjects and Sacred Forms [eg Van Gogh's "Sower" and Gauguin's "Vision After the Sermon"]

   Part Three: Catholic Idealism and Dutch Reformed Realism

   Part Four: Collaboration in Arles

   Part Five: Theologies of Art After Arles

   Part Six: Modernist Catechism and Sacred Realism

   Silverman carefully identifies and then eloquently explores all manner of comparisons and contrasts between the lives and art of Van Gogh and Gauguin within an historical, theological, and anthropological context. Hers is a magnificent achievement.




4. I collect art books and am particularly fond of Vincent Van Gogh, the fabulous Dutch artist of the 19th Century, who is probably the most popular of all artists--EVER (certainly my favorite!!). I have taken several art history courses with Van Gogh as subject, seen all the "Van Gogh" films, etc. I own many books about Van Gogh including a few I picked up in the Netherlands. What could anyone else possibly say about him that I have not already heard? The answer as it turns out is plenty. I had not yet read Debora Silverman's VAN GOGH AND GAUGUIN: THE SEARCH FOR SACRED ART.

   Silverman has taken a different tact in writing about the artists Van Gogh and Gauguin--who will linked together through eternity if for no other reason than the episode in Arles with Van Gogh's "earlobe" (not ear). Like many, I have wondered just why these two men behaved so antagonistically towards each other. I have heard about personality conflicts, differing life styles, and mental illness, but somehow these reasons have never resonated with me. The explanation for the Gauguin-Van Gogh conflict according to Silverman was owing to nothing less than their conflicting interpretations of the meaning of life.

   Gauguin was raised Roman Catholic and attended a Catholic boys school where he was taught the theology of bearing one's cross and dying to the material world to attain the transcendent good--paradise. Van Gogh came from a humanistic Dutch Reformed background in an era when this church was focused on the need for a consolatary religion in the face of EVOLUTION. Their conflict seems to have been a feud of a particular kind as both men attempted to understand the eternal truths, grapple with the new reality of science, and abandon their relgious upbringings.

   While Gauguin's paintings reflect the transcendent as "otherworldly" and point the way for later abstract symbolists such as Picasso, Van Gogh's works are tied to the sacred presence of the eternal in the natural world. In painting after painting, Gauguin flattens the canvas, uses paint sparingly and depicts scenes of misery and suffering, sin and redemption. On the other hand, Van Gogh focuses on the sacred nature of work and rural life--threshing, weaving, milking, and rocking the baby by the fireplace. Where Gauguin creates angels strugging with men and flying cows, Van Gogh paints wheat fields and grape vineyards filled with sowers, thrashers, and harvesters. Where Gauguin sees classical elements such as the three muses and a Greek temple and admires Delacroix, Van Gogh sees bridges, sailboats, looms, and walls, and adores Millet.

   During their short time together in Arles, Gauguin sought to influence Van Gogh--to have him paint from memory, flatten surfaces, and introduce overt religious symbolism into his work. Van Gogh did partially adapt some of Gauguin's techniques such as cloisonism (black outlines separating flat patches of color), but while Gauguin continued to tackle the sinful ways of man (and apparently sin quite heavily when he wasn't working) Van Gogh adapted Zenlike techniques reminiscent of Hiroshege and other Japanese artists who saw no boundary between the divine and natural worlds.

   Silverman writes beautifully (I read every word..this is a powerful book) and there are hundreds of drop-dead beautiful facsimilies of the works of Gauguin and Van Gogh. I think Silverman favors Van Gogh, and I do too so I was not disappointed (though she covers Gauguin quite well). She spends a great deal of time on style and technique, which I also liked very much. She is not merely pointing out technical differences, however, she is showing how their respective techniques were tied to their philosophical outlooks. Several "sets" of paintings by both men are discussed in detail--Van Gogh's Langlois bridge paintings (all nine are reproduced) and the Berceuse paintings (she who rocks the cradle); as well as Gauguin's repeated use elements such as the women of Brittany, cows, angels, and "the dead."

   This is a wonderful book and if you love Van Gogh and want to better understand his painterly ways, you must have it. It will enrich your life.

3 comments about Drawing From The Modern.

1. DRAWING from the MODERN is the first of a three part series published by MOMA as catalogue to accompany the chronologically arranged exhibitions of their drawing collection; in part, celebration of the seventy fifth anniversary of the founding of the Museum.
   
   This first book looks at the late nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. Care and preservation of these drawings dictate that they are displayed infrequently, paper being a delicate medium, subject to fading, discoloration and brittleness. The publication of this series then allows us to have at hand a history of drawings seldom seen, and a visual education demonstrating how problems of that era both evolved and worked themselves out.
   
   The introduction by Jodi Hauptman is broad and well worth reading. Aside from her entertaining "end of art" stories, she addresses artists and process leading to the dissolution of prevalent notions: relationship of "mark" to "ground", took new form; spatial notions of an orderly page, questioned; the element of chance, explored as process; the ego relationship of an artist to work, dissolving. New imagery happened: collage, abstraction, grids, enhanced emotions, metaphors of feeling, the sublime re-imaged. New subjects explored brutalities of war, notions of "city", identity, the spiritual, and the abstract.
   
   As perhaps with all process of art, the uncertainty of change brought forth much that is new. The 139 plates of drawings both demonstrate and give testimony by leading artists of the time to new era in process. Drawing as subject matter is fascinating. To be expected, the book is well printed. Of course, what is book one without book two and three?
   
   Nancy Gutrich



2. This is not a good artbook. The images are way too small to be satisfying. This book could have been great, but falls way short of its potential. Don't buy it, you will be disappointed.



3. I purchased book 1 & 2 from Amazon. The illustrations are far too small to be a professionally represented art book from MOMA I've decided to save my money rather than pay out for the 3rd edition. It sounds a good buy from its description but I don't consider this trilogy to be very satisfactory.

No comments about Gauguin: 1848-1903 (Mega Squares).

3 comments about Discoveries: Gauguin (Discoveries (Abrams)).

1. Cachin has beautifully edited Gauguin's paintings and "barbaric" wood carvings in a journalistic style with varieties of print sizes wrapped around graphics. Juicy tidbits about the artist flamboyant personal and artistic lives are combined with photos and personal descriptions of Gauguin by comtemporary admirers and detractors. A fresh look at the artist. You'll like it!



2. This book,as all the books of this France Company, are absolutely unmissable for all of you who like Paul Gauguin art. The book offer beautiful pictures and many details about Gauguin life that I've never found in any other book talking about the same topic. The only weak point of this chain of books is that the publisher choosed a bad glue for those books thus the cover and a few page jumped out of the book. Apart this annoying problem the books of this chain are simply great ( IF YOU HAVE YOUR OWN GLUE) .



3. Having just traveled to the Society Islands I wanted more info on Paul Gaugin. This book is the best of all I have read on him although it is short and sweet. Beautiful artwork and packed with facts on his life. Has renewed my interest in art!

No comments about Gauguin.