Gauguin’s World exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia

We paid a visit to the National Gallery of Australia to see the work of French post-impressionist Paul Gauguin. Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao is largest exhibition of Gauguin’s work ever to be presented in Australia. It is curated by Henri Loyrette, formerly director of the Musée d’Orsay and president-director of the Musée du Louvre. With over 130 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures and decorative arts you have a lot to take in over a couple of hours. The curator traces Gauguin’s works, from his impressionist paintings to his representations of Polynesian life. It is a large exhibition and if you live in Australia you don’t often get to see such pieces side by side.

I was constantly drawn to take note of composition in his paintings. At first I thought – oh that’s a bit off then I had a real DOH! moment and realised “Oh no it’s not. That is very clever.” I spent the rest of the exhibition admiring how clever he was. The other point of enjoyment was that Gauguin was obviously fascinated with the hats that Breton women wore. I can see why as they were a very interesting shape.

A painting I really enjoyed was the Lane at Alyscamps painted in Arles in 1888. I immediately recognised the lane to the ancient cemetery, as we walked up it when we visited Arles. We were there in Autumn and this painting immediately took me there and bought back memories of that trip. It is an atmospheric painting. Gauguin has captured the rustle of falling leaves in his portrayal of the changing season.

Brush-marks made in the direction of the path lead our gaze into the painting where Gauguin use of a autumnal colour palette set against blue sarcophagi in the green grass. The season, the long shadows of the day in the ancient roman cemetery, the fact that a few years ago we were in that place, at the same season, made me think not only about time but memory.

In The Tahitian women (Femmes de Tahiti) the woman on the right is weaving pandanus leaves with a distracted suspicious expression. The audio tour observes “there is a sense of quiet tension in the women’s hunched and foreshortened postures, as well as their contrasting attire and their seemingly ambiguous relationship to the artist, the viewer and each other.” I am not sure it is so ambiguous. I would say that they are bored, suspicious and even resentful of Gauguin. I find the scene disturbing and a reminder of what the man Gauguin might have been like.

There is no hiding the fact that Gauguin was a disgusting man. The question a podcast produced to accompany the exhibition asks ” Can you loathe an artist and still love their art? “

I left the exhibition with very mixed feelings as I kept seeing all sorts of interesting aspects to his work that illustrated how he experimented with or partly explored something then taken no further. I kept wanting to ask why he did not push things a bit in this or that direction. I am sure I would receive and interesting answer. I wanted to know did he lose interest? Or did he suffer from what I call the bright and shiny thing. Meaning your curiosity is attracted to another technique or idea and you head off down that path. I have to admit I suffer from that a lot so perhaps there is a lesson there for me!

Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao is at the National Gallery of Australia until the 7th of October 2024