The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was one of the most famous pioneers of Post-Impressionism. He had been a Parisian stockbroker, devoted family man, art collector, and Sunday painter for over a decade, when he set sail for the South Seas in 1891. Finding inspiration in the arts of ancient and primitive cultures, he began to create curiously abstract, vibrantly colored paintings and crude, carved reliefs. Few of these works were appreciated during Gauguin's lifetime, but their strange, innovative brilliance gradually became recognized and profoundly influenced twentieth-century art. This volume presents paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints by Gauguin that attest to his genius, all works drawn from public and private collections in New York, including more than fifty from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The text includes a consideration of Gauguin's exotic voyages and their reflections in his art; a history of the reception and appreciation of Gauguin's work on this shore of the Atlantic; and revelations arising from the recent examination of paintings in the Metropolitan Museum's collection. Each of Gauguin's works from these New York collections is in color with accompanying commentary.