The current exhibition at Fondation Beyeler in Riehen (Switzerland) is dedicated to the painter and sculptor Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), focusing mainly on the years the artist spent on islands of the South Seas (English edition: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk; German edition: Amazon.de).
On June 11, 2015 already, roughly three weeks before its closure, the museum show had welcomed its 300,000th visitor, making it the most successful in the foundation’s history. And indeed, the roughly 50 paintings and the few sculptors on display are worth a trip.
Paul Gauguin was in search of the unspoiled paradise on earth. When he arrived on the island of Tahiti in 1891, it was be no means the untouched place he had been looking for. It was already a product of French colonization.
Paul Gauguin was running away from himself and his problems: alcohol and an occasional lack of money. He could not solve those issues in paradise. He even tried to kill himself with arsenic. He survived his suicide attempt, returned to France, just to go back to the South Seas where, in 1901, he built a “House of Pleasure” (Maison du jouir) on the Marquesas Island of Hiva Oa (Long Ridgepole), bigger and more expensive than all his previous ones. The fresh start did not last long. Two years later, he died lonely, poor and partly (but not totally) forgotten.
Paul Gauguin stylized himself as the decent of Indians. He was both attracted to Exoticism and at the same time a master at exploiting other people’s desire for it in his works, a perfect canvas for escapist fantasies. At the same time, he really cared for the indigenous people and was even convicted for libel on the island of Hiva Oa.
Together with Eduard Manet, Paul Gauguin is one of the painters who broke the ground for 20th century art. In 1888, during his stay at the small town of Pont-Aven in the French region of Brittany (Bretagne), he develops his original style known as “Synthetism”, which is characterized by strong, pure and brilliant colors, clearly outlined forms and accentuated contrasts, two-dimensional, flat patterns as well as the artist’s strong feelings regarding the subjects he is working on. He liberated color from the objects he was depicting and introduced elements of abstraction in his artworks.
In some of his self-portraits, which are an important part of the exhibition at Fondation Beyeler, Paul Gauguin stylizes himself as a savior and/or martyr. In Riehen/Basel, you can admire his Yellow Christ from 1889 (Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo) and his Self-portrait with Yellow Christ from 1890/1 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris) side by side.
Paul Gauguin’s paintings made in the South Seas are sometimes almost ethnographical, dealing with everyday life. At the same time, the painter ads a dose of exotic flair, mysticism, mystery and transcendent meanings to his works.
The Beyeler Collection itself does not contain a single work of art by Paul Gauguin, although several of his paintings as well as a wooden relief have been sold through Ernst Beyeler’s gallery.
Therefore, it is sensational how many famous paintings were lent to the Beyeler exhibition, for instance from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which sent the fragile and monumental D’où venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous? from 1897/8. It is unlikely that we will ever be able to admire a Gauguin show of such quality in Switzerland anytime again.
Paul Gauguin is not only popular because of his artworks, but also because of his story. He is a dropout who had previously worked as an investment advisor, stock broker, speculator and insurance agent before dedicating himself to art and the search for paradise on earth. He died almost penniless on a island far from modern civilization.
Paul Gauguin is the son of the Republican journalist Clovis and Aline Marie, the daughter of the painter André François Chazal and the Socialist writer Flora Tristan, a Spaniard with Peruvian roots.
Born in Paris in 1848, Paul emigrates with his family to Peru after Louis Napoleon’s coup d’état. The father dies during the sea voyage to South America. Together with his mother and his older sister Marie, he lives with a well-to-do great uncle in Lima from 1849 until 1854. At the start of the Peruvian civil war, the family returns to France, where they stay in Orléans, some 70km southwest of Paris, where they stay with an uncle.
From 1856 until 1864, Paul is sent to boarding school because his mother has to work. From 1865 until 1867, Paul signs up as a trainee officer. On a trip around the world, he learns of his mothers death in Saint-Cloud in 1867. From 1868 until 1870, he is a sailor in the French navy, travelling even up to the Polar Circle.
Paul Gauguin, disappointed by his experiences in the military, lands a job at Banque Bertin in Paris, where he works as an investment advisor, stock broker and successful speculator. During this period from 1871 until 1872, he starts painting and drawing in his free time. He becomes acquainted with Impressionism and attends Académie Colarossi, the private art school founded by the Italian sculptor Filippo Colarossi.
In 1873 Paul Gauguin marries Mette-Sophie Gad, a Danish nanny working in Paris. They have five children together: Emile (*1874), Aline (*1877), Clovis (*1879), Jean-René (*1881) and Pola (*1883).
In 1874 Paul Gauguin gets to know the Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro. In the following years, he is accepted at the Salon d’Automne, the fourth Impressionist exhibition, while continuing to successfully speculate on the Stock Exchange, investing the money in works by Cézanne, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and others.
From 1880 until 1882, he works as an insurance agent, participates in further Impressionist exhibitions, paints with Pissaro and meets Cézanne. He even manages for the first time to sell works to the famous art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who represents Corot, Whistler, Degas, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and others.
In 1883 Paul Gauguin gives up his job as an insurance agent to dedicate himself solely to art. The family’s financial situation begins to deteriorate. Its the beginning of their social decline. The following year, the family moves first to Rouen, then to his wife’s parents in Copenhagen. Paul Gauguin is forced to pick up a job besides his artwork; he works as the representative of a linen company, with no success.
His first Copenhagen show opens in 1885, but closes after a few days. He gets into an arguments with his parents-in-law and moves back to Paris, taking his young son Clovis with him.
In 1886 he moves to Brittany (Bretagne) to live and work in the artists’ colony in Pont-Aven, where he creates his first ceramic works. In October, he returns to Paris, where he meets Vincent Van Gogh. He starts thinking about travelling to the South Seas.
In 1887 he takes his son Clovis back to Copenhagen and then travels to Panama and the island of Martinique with his friend Charles Laval. He finishes several paintings and drawings and return to Paris in November. Theo van Gogh offers Paul Gauguin monthly payments of 150 francs in exchange for one painting per month if he goes to Arles and stays there with Vincent van Gogh. Gauguin accepts the proposal.
In 1888 Paul Gauguin lives most of the time in Pont-Aven, working with fellow painters, who acknowledge him as a teacher. He moves away from Impressionism and develops his own style, the above-mentioned “Synthetism”. In Autumn he works with Van Gogh in Arles. On December 23, after a sudden outburst, Van Gogh threatens Gauguin and then cuts off part of his own ear. Gauguin is arrested, then released and asks Theo van Gogh to come to Arles and stay with his brother. On December 26, Gauguin moves back to Paris with Theo van Gogh.
In February 1889, Gauguin returns to Brittany, staying in Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu. In May, during the Paris World Exhibition, he exhibits some of his works at Café des arts.
In 1890 he prepares to auction off his paintings to finance his emigration. The following year, he puts his plan into practice and sells at paintings through Hôtel Drouot. In March, he travels to Copenhagen to say goodbye to his family. In April he sails from to the port of Marseille to the island of Tahiti in search of the unspoiled, ideal life and the lost paradise. He arrives in June and lives with his lover-model Teha’amana in the village of Mataiea. He has not found paradise, but a colonized world. Nevertheless, Tahiti inspires him to create his most famous paintings and sculptures.
In 1892 he suffers a heart attack and has to be taken to hospital. He sends several artworks to European exhibitions, but his financial situation deteriorates nevertheless.
In 1893 he is completely penniless and persuades the French government to repatriate him free of charge to France. He arrives in Marseille in August. A small legacy enables him to rent a Paris apartment. He creates important paintings and woodcuts. His exhibition at Durand-Ruel’s gallery is a failure. Together with the French writer, poet and essayist Charles Morice, he prepares his autobiographical story Noa Noa, which is published in La Revue blanche in 1897.
In 1894 Paul Gauguin spends most of his time in Brittany, where he breaks an ankle in a fight and has to spend two months in hospital. Back in Paris, he discovers that his mistress, the Javanese dancer Annah, has ransacked his study, leaving only his pictures behind.
In February 1895, the second auction of his works at Hôtel Drouot ends in a disaster. In July he sails again from Marseille to Tahiti, where he arrives in September and settles on the west coast, where he creates an important number of masterpieces.
In 1896 he lives with the Tahitian woman Pau’ura. In the summer, he returns to the hospital, presumably to undergo treatment for syphilis.
In 1897 Paul Gauguin’s daughter Aline dies, which leads to the definitive break with his wife Mette. He suffers additional heart attacks. He suffers from poor health and tries to commit suicide by taking arsenic. He is taken to hospital and recovers, although only slowly.
In 1898 he takes the position of draughtsman at Papeete Land Registry. The following year, Pau’ura gives birth to their son Emile. Paul Gauguin launches the satirical monthly Le Sourire and writes for a newspaper. His support for the cause of the indigenous Maori gets him into a conflict with the French, colonial authorities as well as with the Church.
In 1900 a contract with the Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard enables Paul Gauguin for the first time to live from his art. The following year, in search of new inspiration and lower living costs, the artist moves to the Marquesas Island Hiva Oa, situated some 1,500 km to the east of Tahiti. Here, he creates his last major works and builds his above-mentioned “House of Pleasure” (Maison du jouir), where he lives with a young woman. Renewed conflict with the colonial authorities follows. His artistic output declines whereas his addiction to alcohol increases.
In 1902, his health is so poor that he thinks about moving to Spain. In Papeete in 1903, he is fined 500 francs and sentenced to one month in prison for slandering the policeman Etienne Guichenay. On May 8, 1903 before starting to serve his sentence, his dies alone in his hut in Atuona, a victim of his drug and alcohol abuse. He is buried the next day in the Catholic cemetery in Hiva Oa.
If you are looking for (many) more details about one of the father’s of modern art, the catalogue’s chronology dedicates twelve pages to Gauguin’s years in the South Seas alone.
[Added on April 24, 2016: After Gauguin’s death, the artist’s belongings were sold: a sewing machine for some 80 francs, his paintings for between 3 francs and 5 francs. In 2015, Gauguin’s painting Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will you Marry?), for decades on display at Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland, was sold by the Swiss Rudolphe Staechelin family to Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani, the chairwoman of Qatar museums, for $300 million; the world’s most expensive painting could be admired at the Fondation Beyeler exhibition].
This review is largely based on the exhibition catalogue, edited by Raphaël Bouvier and Martin Schwander: Paul Gauguin. Fondation Beyeler, Hatje Cantz, 2015, 230 pages, 160 photographs/reproductions, including five essays, a detailed chronology and more. Order the book from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and (for the German edition/deutsche Ausgabe) Amazon.de.
The Paul Gauguin exhibition at Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basel, Switzerland ends on June 28, 2015.
Exhibition and catalogue review added on June 27, 2015 at 19:28 Swiss time.
