Guys Like Gauguin: a Legacy of Portrait Exposes the Un-Remarkability of the Colonialism Façade That He Relied on for His Acclaim
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Guys Like Gauguin: A Legacy of portrait exposes the un-remarkability of the Colonialism façade that he relied on for his acclaim. The way Gauguin objectified non-white and primarily female bodies in his paintings, which Emma Pilker was a carefully crafted part of this façade, Senior, Art History paired with his overwhelming fame and status in Western culture, contributes to a constant re- Introduction colonization that occurs in the art world and Paul Gauguin’s body of work lives at permeates outward through academia, the intersection of orientalist and primitivist institutions, and cultural consumption. myth. He had a conscious hand in creating the Preserving and honoring Gauguin, and artists mythology surrounding his work; his similar to himself, while largely ignoring artists imagination was the source for the fiction of from areas that he appropriated contributes to both his own life events and depictions of non- the looming institution of French colonialism Western cultures. Separating who Gauguin is as and creates an art world that privileges an artist from who Gauguin was as a man whiteness and Eurocentric narratives. The proves a difficult task. A large body of work structure of such an art world is hostile to exists dedicated to documenting and individuals who feel non-European narratives understanding Gauguin’s biography, are worthy of inquiry and study. investigating evidence that may or may not shed light on the truest or most honest version Gauguin: The Man of Paul Gauguin.1 Despite the unknowability of Gauguin’s life is fascinating and who any person truly is, presenting itself as an enthralling to many scholars and audiences. obstacle in this process, scholars throughout the The incongruences between Gauguin’s self- years have scoured his biographical crafted, outward facing image and facts that information, life events, and letters for clarity. oppose his narrative are worth examination. While this may add to the discourse When investigating these incongruences, one surrounding how Gauguin’s life affected his finds that study regarding the effects of work, it is more illuminating to look at Gauguin’s life on the individuals and groups he marginalized are overwhelmingly Gauguin’s work for evidence of how he 3 conceptualized himself in relation to others. understudied. This points to a larger problem Self-image was a major component of with Gauguin’s presence in the Western art Gauguin’s creative endeavor. His mythology historical narrative. The idolization of Gauguin or, to use a term coined by Roland Barthes, serves as just one of several functions that keep “mythic speech,” was self-conscious and art history a predominantly white field that prioritizes white, male, Eurocentric art. manifested in his various creations—works of art, works of fiction, and letters.2 His final self- Gauguin: The Artist 1 Suzanne Greub, Gauguin: Polynesia (Munich: Hirmer The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, Publishers, 2012), 346. ed. Norma Broude et al. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2 Abigail Solomon-Godeau, “Going Native: Paul 1992), 315. 3 Gauguin and the Invention of Primitivist Modernism,” in Greub, Gauguin, 324. Gauguin’s formal qualities from his In escaping a rapidly industrializing France, early work conformed to the traditional bounds Gauguin found a life that was well suited for of Impressionism.4 He was able to transform many artists that included a low cost of living, from below average into “The Father of close interaction with nature, and freedom from Modernism” when he underwent a drastic familial or financial duties.10 While there may change in subject matter.5 With this re- have been authenticity in this part of his desire orientation toward exoticism he drew to migrate to Polynesia, his depictions of widespread fascination with his work.6 It begs Polynesian subjects were entirely of his own the question of if Gauguin achieved his fame mind—there are many documented cases of through his revolution of form or more through Gauguin depicting cultural and ecological the fascination he and his audience had with the inaccuracies.11 Some of these inaccuracies subject matter. Perhaps his boldness with color include that many of his Tahitian titles for his and exploration with planar figures would have work are untranslatable, which is of no surprise been received differently had Gauguin not when considering the many times Gauguin chosen to create images of brown-skinned, tried to learn the language and failed, and the dark-haired women in a paradisiacal landscape well-documented lack of interactions Gauguin so starkly different from anything found on the had with indigenous populations, despite living continent of Europe. Exoticism helped him find there for years.12 success in his field regardless. Gauguin did not Self-Portrait make any sales to major art world players until Jean Dolent claimed there were two 1888, after his first trip to Martinique. The trip men in Gauguin who opposed each other: who to Martinique led to Theo van Gogh, and he was as a man and who he was as an artist, probably his brother, visiting Gauguin to possibly suggesting the artificiality behind purchase the Martinique works.7 Amidst the Gauguin’s artist persona.13 Gauguin’s self- same period is when Gauguin said that the best proclaimed “savagery” and his desire to fit in way to receive acclaim in the art world is to with various non-Western natives was his most travel to and depict the “other.”8 As he did so, precious aspect of his performative identity. He Gauguin embarked on his own quest to find claimed multiple times to be of “mixed-race” himself in what he deemed “the savage.”9 descent and to have “Incan” blood.14 His His quest for a “savage” life may have attempt to connect with this part of himself can been partly motivated by less offensive desires. be seen in his many self-portraits, where he 4 tried to paint himself in a grotesque, ghastly Richard Brettell et al., The Art of Paul Gauguin way; he portrayed his face as shockingly (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1988), 11. 5 Solomon-Godeau, “Going Native,” 316. 6 Amy Dickson, “Gauguin: A Very British Reception,” 10 in Gauguin: Maker of Myth, ed. Belinda Thomson James F. Knapp, “Primitivism and Empire: John (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), 314. Synge and Paul Gauguin,” Comparative Literature 41, 7 no. 1 (Winter 1989): 56, doi: 10.2307/1770679. Brettell et al., Paul Gauguin, 12. 11 8 Solomon-Godeau, “Going Native,” 320. Daniel Wildenstein, Gauguin: A Savage in the Making, 12 Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings (1873-1888) Brettell et al., Paul Gauguin, XXVI. 13 (Torino: Skira Editore S.P.A, 2002), XIII. Ibid. 9 14 Ibid, 23. Ibid. angular with what he called his “evil eye”—a wears a small pair of spectacles that connote a cold, calculating stare; an impenetrable mask of thoughtful, docile old man. It is as if “there is insincerity. His claims to Incan heritage or any no one left to convince and only death to type of non-whiteness have been debunked by confront.”20,21 The noise of Gauguin’s mythic family historiographies.1516 speech falls silent. Provocation and vanity Gauguin’s self-mythology is evaporate from their shallow depths. The inextricably bound to a desire to offend—to be portrait is devoid of theatre.22 He wears a cultural transgressor, to shock, and to disgust. white—in what possibly could be a hospital The key to Gauguin’s originality lay in his need gown—looking studious with an intense gaze. to create a visual extreme, to a degree of Gauguin was fabricating his memoirs during hostility.17 This is why his self-portraits, for a this same period—the portrait could be the long time, were so angry, provocative, and visual manifestation of a final, personal almost defiantly confrontational.18 One of the encounter with his real self.23 The absence of only exceptions to this rule can be found in his fantasy and primitivism looms large, final self-portrait, which is evidential of a considering that Gauguin built his mythology, Gauguin who both evolved and descended into his career, and his acclaim, on the fantastic and a final authenticity. This last self-portrait, the primitive. One cannot help but notice that painted in his final year, is a plea before even his nose is smaller. It is no longer jutting death—the honest qualities here reveal the out his face like it is in his Self Portrait shallow, theatrical, over-exaggerated dedicated to Carrière, Bonjour Monsieur artificiality of his other works. This veneer Gauguin, Christ in the Garden of Olives, or his hinged not on location but on an opportunist, Self Portrait from 1889. colonial willingness to equate a non-white Gauguin did not create any self-portraits group as outside the realm of palatability and during his first trip to Tahiti in 1891-3.24 for the edgy consumption of Europeans who Perhaps he realized how profitable this truly lacked an indigenous cultural heritage.19 “primitive” subject matter could be. After this This final self-portrait was made in first trip, his self-portraits evolved, as if 1903. Painted on Atuono in French Polynesia, interactions amongst the “savages” further this portrait was finished before he died in May elevated his own self-image. His self-portraits of the same year, in the same place. Here, he is display Gauguin, confident man of the world, depicted from a straightforward angle. His and Gauguin, the world traveler, in portraits clothes and hair have been called austere; he such as his 1893 Self Portrait With Palette and Self-Portrait with Manao tupapau. He even 15 Ibid. goes on to set his own features aside a wooden 16 Ibid.