Paul Gauguin: Art is Either Plagiarism or Revolution. (NSFW)
When I just started to paint my teacher compared my first paintings with Paul Gauguin. I was soooo happy))). But she thought she insulted me as she was a supporter of only the realism school and all others schools were not accepted by her. But for me it was the best compliment ever.
So, why did Gauguin have such a big love for the exotic South, that colourful and hot world? The roots are in his childhood. Paul's early childhood was spent in Peru. He was surrounded with palms and magnolias, and a multi ethnic environment. That noisy and bright world were the first impressions of a little boy. When his mom brought him back to Paris he felt himself a stranger among those grey and pale colours. And only souvenirs from Peru reminded him of a Heaven lost.
But Gauguin started to get used to France. When he grew up, he went to serve in the fleet, later he worked at the stock exchange. He turned out to be a good financier and he built a big capital. At age 25 Gauguin got married and with time he became a father of 5 kids.
His money enabled him to acquire a good collection of paintings, old Dutch ware and eastern carpets. More and more he was captured by a love for art. In the evenings after work he visited art galleries and in the nights he painted and painted. He got acquainted with many artists and finally the stock exchange became unbearable to him. He told his wife that he decided to leave the stock exchange and would start painting. His wife was shocked. She couldn't understand and couldn't forgive him. And after they separated she was looking for revenge as he ruined her dreams.
Very difficult times of searching, hard work and poverty started for Gauguin. Even his friends didn't understand his art. And then he escaped to Tahiti. Life there was far from his expectations but the golden skin of the Tahiti women captured him.
He easily changed relations with women in Tahiti and was happy with that. But with time he started to think about a serious relation with a woman but it was not easy to do as he was already 43 years old.
Once he decided to travel around Tahiti and was invited to the house of a local. He was asked what he was looking for and surprisingly to himself he answered a wife. Immediately he became the husband of a charming 13 years old "bride" Tehura. He was madly in love with his young wife. Tehura was an ideal wife and finally the Tahiti heaven started. When Paul was painting, she could silently sit and dream or do house work. She could fish, gathered fruits. And of course he admired her young body. Before Tehura he couldn't understand the souls of Maori. But with her appearance everything changed.
He constantly painted her.
While he painted her she was telling him a story about one sect. Gauguin was interested in it and studied some researches on this topic about Ariori society whose main idea was free love. All members had unlimited rights for sexual relations with each other. They considered themselves adapts of the God Ora and tried to spread his dogma. The most popular was dancing naked and demonstrations of sexual techniques. They said that their society was established by the God Ora when a famous Vairumati seduced him to earth.
Paul Gauguin was obsessed with the idea to make a painting about this legend about the God Oro. Especially when he had such a gorgeous model who seemed beautiful not only to him but to her countrymen too. But he didn't strive to the exact depicting of outside, for him the main thing was recreation of an inner world of the image or a story. He called the painting "Her name is Vairumati". As the old myth goes: Oro the second greatest god after his father Taaroa, decided to find a bride among mortals. He wanted her to be a virgin as his plan was to create a privileged and high caste of people. Oro came down to the earth wirh his sister in the images of ordinary people to look for a girl. For several days they were looking for a decent girl but their efforts were fruitless. When they decided to come back home he saw a beautiful woman. Her name was Vairumati. He made her a proposal and she accepted. By rainbow he came down to her and she set a table for him. Several evenings he came down to her to spend nights with and she became pregnant. They had a son who became a great chief and did lot of good things to people and after his death he went to the heavens. After her death Vairumati took her place in heaven among the goddesses too. Oro's offspring were called Arion.
Her name is Vairumati
On the painting there is nude VaiRuMati with fresh fruits on the little table for her love. Behind her there is Oro in a red cloth. The poses remind you of the images on Egyptian reliefs.
Although he escaped civilization Gauguin stayed French. In evenings he was walking in a loin cloth but in a cylinder hat, a part of Europe. He missed his wife and kids. So, he left Tahiti and his beautiful Tehura.
The painting "Her name is Vaimurati" traveled a lot but it has found its home in the center of Moscow at Pushkin's Museum.
Gauguin strove to the primitive and his style was in harmony with impressionism, Japanese graphic and kids illustrations. It was perfect for the depicting of southern people. His paintings are metaphors with deep meaning often with mythological mystics. With his amazing colours he transferred his mood, thoughts and his inner status.
His Tahiti paintings were not understood by critics and he came back to Tahiti. He moved to the island Dominick where he died. And only 3 years after his death he was recognized as a great artist.
By the way, Gauguin and Van Gogh were good friends and the story of the cut off ear of Van Gogh is connected to Gauguin but it is a different story.
The post is written under inspiration after reading a book "100 Masterpieces" by N. Sinelnikova.