Customer Reviews

Gauguin Tahiti

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Most art books give you lots of gorgeous plates and a view from 50,000 feet of the artist's entire life. Gauguin Tahiti was a pleasant and positive exception from that generalization.

The book does contain lots of gorgeous plates, but also shows a tremendous number of sketches and source materials backed with extensive notes on what the author wrote and said. This enables a careful reader to appreciate the development of icons, iconography, themes and cosmology. The number of interesting essays in the book is unexpectedly large: 17 by my count where the usual art book has perhaps 3 or 4. The essays come at Gauguin from slightly different perspectives, helping you to fill in a 360 degree view over time.

Most art books focus on the artist's best known work. I was very pleased to see this book deal thoroughly with Gauguin's relatively little known sculptures, wood carvings, unusual prints and experimentation with materials and processes. To me, that made this book a particularly rich experience.

If the book has a weakness, it's that the authors of the essays cannot quite bring themselves to describe the less attractive parts of Gauguin's life style and personal habits. So you end up with a partially sanitized package. Like so many artists, his ability to communicate visually was marred by a weak ability to relate to others in constructive and supportive ways.

Be prepared to spend time with this book. Each essay builds on insights from earlier ones with lots of cross referencing of images. As a result, your knowledge will build to a level similar to that of taking an MFA course for a semester on Gauguin's Tahitian and South Sea works.

If you read only one art book this year, you would do well to pick this one. This book will also make a wonderful gift for anyone who loves Gauguin's paintings and wants to learn more about his entire oeuvre.

Take a close look!

This book gives a lot of informaton over the Tahiti-period of Gauguin, not only of his paintings but also of his his sculpture and graphic work. It's state of the art, but a bit dull. Beside, if you want to know more about the exoticism in Gauguin's oeuvre or the symbolism in his work I recommend Gauguin's skirt by Stephen Eisenman or Symbolism by Rodolphe Rapetti. On the other hand, if you are interested in the total output of the artist (and not only his paintings), this book is highly recommemded.

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) is one of 19th Century Europe's most mythic artists. He was a man of amazing talent, eccentric behavior, and controversial conduct. Leaving a career as a banker, Gauguin became obsessed with painting, eventually abandoning his family and sailing to the South Sea islands of Polynesia where he spent out the remainder of his life painting, sculpturing, producing innovative graphic works and unusual ceramics. Enhanced with 260 color and 80 b/w illustrations, Gauguin Tahiti is wonderfully presented, highly recommended, in-depth, 380-page biography of this gifted man's life and work as a European master artist who "went native" in the tropical paradise of Tahiti.