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The lush, colorful paintings of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) revolutionized modern painting at the turn of the last century. Gauguin's travels--which took him to Brittany, Panama, Martinique, Provence, Tahiti, and the Marquesas Islands--inspired some of the history of art's most imaginative visions of paradise. This engaging book will entrance art lovers with quality reproductions of his outstanding paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture in The Art Institute of Chicago's permanent collection.

Publication of Gauguin coincides with a major exhibition on Van Gogh and Gauguin organized by The Art Institute of Chicago with the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. ... Read more

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Lush, colorful artworks revolutionizing modern painting
Paul Gauguin was at the heart of the Post-Impressionist movement with his lush, colorful artworks revolutionizing modern painting a the turn of the 19th Century. Largely self-taught in a diversity of media including oil painting, printmaking, and ceramics, Gauguin came to his career as a Parisian artist relatively late in life, and went on to paint subjects drawn from where he would live ranging from Brittany and Martinique, to Tahiti, and the Marquesas islands. In Gauguin, art expert Britt Salvesen drew from research developed by Douglas W. Druick and Peter Kort Zegers, enhanced with 79 superbly presented illustrations of which 52 are in color and 27 are duotone. Gauguin is a very highly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library art history reading lists and reference collections in general, as well as being strongly commended to students of the life and work of Paul Gauguin in particular. ... Read more

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Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more

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Great painter’s 64 letters to his friend and fellow artist Georges Daniel de Monfreid intimately reveal his intense struggles to live and work in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands in the last 12 years of his life. Subjects range from problems working with paints and canvas in the tropics to thoughts on artists of the past and present; collection offers many rewarding insights into the psychology of the man and the artist.
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A series that uncovers the life and times of some of the most important and influential artists of the modern world. It includes easy to follow chronological structure illustrated with colour and black and white contemporary photographs. It also features detailed timelines for quick reference, plus museum and gallery information. ... Read more

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This is the catalogue of the exhibition which opened at the National Gallery of Art in May 1988 before travelling to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais in Paris. The exhibition contained more than 200 of Gauguin's works of art, including paintings, ceramics, sculpture, drawings and prints. The text, by curators of the participating museums, all experts on Gauguin, illuminates and reappraises early works and also suggests new approaches to the study of Gauguin and his art. ... Read more

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Technique and Meaning in the Paintings of Paul Gauguin provides a new interpretation of Gauguin's art.Reconstructing the artist's changing painting techniques, Jirat-Wasiutynski and Newton demonstrate that Gauguin's technical choices were meaningful. Beginning in 1886, Gauguin produced monumental figure paintings using full-scale cartoons to prepare them in a manner similar to that of the Quattrocento fresco painters. In the following years, brushwork and impasto disappeared from his paintings, producing works that contemporaries described as "primitive" and "decorative." Indeed, the authors argue, Gauguin's abandonment of oil painting was deliberate and signaled a rejection of modern Western culture and society. ... Read more

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A book on post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), written especially for young readers. The author tells the story of Gauguin's life and work in a style which should appeal to those encountering the artist for the first time. The reader learns how Gauguin, a successful Paris stockbroker, left his family to sail off to Tahiti on an artistic quest that produced some of the late 19th century's most beautiful and original paintings. Greenfeld conveys a strong sense of Gauguin's personality and leaves the reader with an understanding of his struggle to become an artist of significance. ... Read more

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Paul Gauguin (First Impressions)
After reading W. Sumerset Maugham's `The Moon and Sixpence' said to have been based on the life of Paul Gauguin, (can someone tell me why that title?), I decided to read a Gauguin's biography just to see exactly what is meant by "Based on the life of..." means. So naturally I went to the library; free. I checked out Howard Green's book: "Paul Gauguin (First Impressions)"; what luck, it was the only one on the shelf. It is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read and the art work reproduction and colors are just glorious and I am now so turned onto Gauguin's painting and just have to have a copy of this book for my own. The book is wonderfully written and portrays Paul Gauguin as not a very pleasant man, as did Maugham. But how do you separate the Man from his art or his body of work; and should you? What drives someone to dedicate his life to painting and abandon his responsibilities, his children? He's dead now and I can love his art and dislike the man; perhaps great art only comes from great suffering. Can't wait till my copy arrives. ... Read more

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Collected here are the original publications from one of the most important exhibitions in the history of American art--the 1913 Armory Show.

Opening on February 17, 1913, in New York and traveling to Chicago and Boston, the Armory Show was meant to be a simple exhibition of the new abstract and cubist art coming out of Europe. What it ultimately became was a sprawling showcase of some of the most ground-breaking(and many said subversive) art America had ever seen. Sensational to crowds, controversial among critics, and inspirational for artists, the Armory Show radically changed the face of art in America.

This volume collects the complete text of "For and Against: Views on the Infamous 1913 Armory Show" (9780982325711) and "The New Spirit: Pamphlets from the Infamous 1913 Armory Show" (9780982325728). Here you'll find excerpts from Paul Gauguin's provocative Tahitian journal, Elie Faure's enthralling essay on Cezanne, a range of impassioned views both for and against the "new" art, and president Theodore Roosevelt's famous essay, "A Layman's Views of an Art Exhibition". Long out of print, these writings (which were first published in pamphlets and sold at the exhibition itself) reintroduce readers to artists and ideas as powerful today as they were nearly a century ago. ... Read more

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Paul Gauguin was introduced into the Impressionist circle by Camille Pissarro and contributed major works to five of the eight Impressionist exhibitions between 1879 and 1886. During these years, he transformed himself from a banker-stockbroker into a professional artist and from a family man into a solitary searcher for artistic, moral, and spiritual truths. Yet this vital period of Gauguin's life has usually been dismissed as an awkward prelude to his brilliant career as an anti-Impressionist. This handsomely illustrated book reconsiders Gauguin's apprenticeship as an Impressionist and reassesses his contributions to the movement through the extraordinarily subtle and beautiful paintings, sculpture, and ceramic works he created during the years before 1887. ... Read more

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This volume is part of a new series that portrays the lives and works of some of the world's greatest artists and their influence on the world of art. Each book includes: reconstruction artwork of particular scenes from the artist's life; examples of the artist's work with text to link their life and work; life story and photographs of the artist; and a timeline. ... Read more

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In this penetrating and daring biography of Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), Nancy Mowll Mathews traces the themes of sex and violence through the artist's life, from the near-murderous quarrels of his grandparents, to his abusive treatment of his wife, to his sexual encounters in French Polynesia in the 1890s. The book examines how Gauguin used these complex themes in his art and writings and how he carefully presented his "erotic life" in the autobiographical treatises "Noa Noa" (1893) and "Avant et Après" (1903). The central drama of Gauguin's adulthood--his marriage to Mette Gad Gauguin--is assessed in detail, and with the inclusion of some of Mette's previously unpublished letters, both sides of the Gauguin marriage are presented for the first time.Mathews also provides fascinating new insights into understanding Gauguin's relationships with men and women and the roles that sexuality and aggression played in shaping his art. She also illuminates his homosocial, if not homoerotic, relationships with Vincent van Gogh, Emile Schuffenecker, and Charles Filiger. Gauguin's genius resided not only in his forging of new artistic paths, Mathews concludes, but in his ability to bring his sexual fantasies alive for a large audience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fresh approach
This book, in its calm, even-handed way, manages to make Paul Gauguin come to life for the first time.Rather than rehash the myths about this man (which, Mathews demonstrates, were started by Gauguin himself), the author goes directly to the primary sources to trace his life and understand his character.It turns out that he did beat his wife and leave her and their five children without financial support.And he treated most of his friends and colleagues with equal heartlessness. But the story does not end there.It goes on to show how even out of such a flawed character great art could arise.This book teaches much about the unpredictability of creative talent.

Prejudiced Author
It is unfortunate when an author approaches his or her subject with such a predetermined perspective that the author's opinions and report of facts becomes suspect.This is clearly the case with Nancy Mathews approach to Paul Gauguin.

She starts with the assumption that he is an abusive and violent man, and selectively views his life to support this distorted view.

Some examples: At p. 66 that author states: "It is not known whether Gauguin beat his children."What an outrageous statement for a purportedly objective biographer to make!It is like the proverbial qustion "When did you stop beating your wife?"

On page 62 as an example of Gauguin's "cruelty" to women is cited the fact that when Gauguin engaged in the Danish custom of men and women bathing nude at the beach he actually looked at a pretty, nude woman.

Also on page 62 the author states that when Gauguin left Denmark and returned to Paris, "Out of spite he took one of the children ..Clovis".The author offers not a sintilla of evidence to back up her statement that this action was spitefully motivated, rather than a natural paternal desire to have one of his sons with him.

Whatever merits the book may otherwise have, this obvious bias of the author makes the entire book suspect. ... Read more

Product Description
Together with Cezanne and Van Gogh, Gauguin was one of the founding fathers of modern art. While Cezanne created an art of synthesis, and Van Gogh focused on primal expression, Gauguin s approach involved a rehabilitation of the dark forces of the mind, and the search for a virginity that involved the expression of a world devoid of all the defects of a civilization whose vices and snares he had escaped from.
His painting was the record of a quest that led him to the most distant horizons; he wanted to create a world of innocence and pure sensuality, like an echo of Arcadia or a lost paradise. Women dominated his world, with the power of all the forces of nature that they incarnate.
Gaugin's life was inseparable from his work. He devoted himself to it with the enthusiasm of a warrior as he attempted to create a form of painting freed of academic fetters. While the Impressionist revolution was a natural progression in the history of art, Gauguin was the first to break away from western traditions, using archetypes from civilizations that were still untouched, or others from a distant past, creating a language of origins, striving to present the genesis of a new man, one free of all the hypocrisy that ruled social relations in the 19th century. In his own manner, he lauded the sacred, was close to pagan divinities, and tried to develop a synthesis with them and recreate a lost Eden. ... Read more

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A brief biography of the French artist accompanies reproductions and analyses of several of his works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Large, color reproductions with analysis; brief biography
Full page, color illustrations of Paul Gaugin's work appear with the author's interpretation and some background information about each work of art on the facing page. I appreciate the large, color reproductions. There is very brief biographical information at the beginning of the book. I don't feel the biographical information was quite enough, even for my 6 year old, so we will supplement with another children's biography on Gaugin. This was a great first book to read about Paul Gaugin. However, this book is not to be missed. What makes it special is the large format of the pictures and the in-depth analysis of each work, which seldom appears in children's books about an authors' work.

It is a shame that this book is out of print! ... Read more

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