Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist

Most people are familiar with the brilliantly colored oil paintings of Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), but who knew that he also carved wooden shoes? Or that he was apt to grab the wooden tableware of his Tahitian neighbors and start engraving them with vigorous designs relating to the native traditions of the Polynesian islands? During his years in Paris, Gauguin also produced a wide range of ceramic objects, modeling and altering the clay, not just decorating the surfaces as Pablo Picasso did a century later. Published to accompany a Franco-American exhibition, this volume contains seven major essays by art historians who relate these so-called minor artistic endeavours to major themes expressed in the painter's better-known canvases. In a particularly illuminating essay, we glimpse Gauguin in his studio, setting his brilliant ideas to work in sculpture, paintings, and prints that accompanied his book Noa Noa. Even the chrome yellow with which he painted the studio walls had deep meaning.