The Writings Of A Savage [Paperback]

Paul Gauguin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 1996

The life of Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), who abandoned his wife, five children, and a successful career as a stockbroker to paint in poverty in exotic Tahiti, is one of the legendary tales of the art world. Today he is recognized as a highly influential founding father of modern art, who emphasized the use of flat planes and bright, nonnaturalistic color in conjunction with symbolic or primitive subjects. Familiarity with Gauguin the writer is essential for a complete understanding of the artist. The Writings of a Savage collects the very best of his letters, articles, books, and journals, many of which are unavailable elsewhere. In brilliantly lucid discussions of life and art Gauguin paints a triumphant self-portrait of a volcanic artist and the tormented man within.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This 1978 collection of essays by the painter offers access to his previously unavailable writings. An introduction by art scholar Wayne Anderson puts Gauguin's life in perspective and reveals some unpleasant sides to his personality. This "illuminating" volume (LJ 11/15/78) must be read by anyone seriously studying Gauguin's art.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (March 22, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306807009
• ISBN-13: 978-0306807008
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Non Refinement of a work, January 17, 2011

By 

D.J.Sprague - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Writings Of A Savage (Paperback)

I was slo interested in Gauguin's comment on "the refinement of a work." I am not sure what he meant by it being a visual artist. A performance artist is expressing themselves in the moment, which does not lend itself to refinement of a work. A work of art that is developed by an artist is conducted with refinement until what the artist conceives begins to show and only ends when the artist has no more ability to go further. It took four years for Da Vinci to produce the Mona Lisa, refining it at the end with a single-strand horse hair brush. Gaugin's need was to schuck culture sense and sensibilities back to what he was before he put on those garmets. To shed the cultural shell or identity which handicaps natural instincts. These natural instincts includes the existential identity one has as a child, to identify only with what one thinks, feels, and knows, especially when in youth, freedom of thinking, feeling, and knowing is allowed. From his writings, the struggle to change his cultural identity is what I think drove him for the last half of his life. At great cost, he succeeded. An excellent source book about the struggle of an artist.

11 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Refinement of artistic work through multiple castings., September 22, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Writings Of A Savage (Paperback)

The line that has always remained fixed in my mind was Gauguin's comment

on the refinement of a work. I think on a very basic level, to simply
make a primary statement and move on has a very satisfying feeling to it.
Miles Davis, among others, was fond of one takes because there is a spirit
that is captured in that take, often lost on recurrent ones because
of increased expectations, abstraction of an "ideal", and trying
to recall of the "good stuff" while dismissing the "bad". Gauguin's work and
life capture this idea quite well, and he voices a call-to-arms by bringing
to light this notion of the non-refinement of the work. In Japanese ink
calligraphy, the calligrapher has but one chance to draw to the rice paper;
the live jazz improvisation must consider ALL of the performance to be part of
the statement. It is a further comment against the hyperabstraction of Western
artistic ideals, psuedo-ideals, that canonize relative cultural ideals and
discard that which is considered non-beatiful or non-meaningful.