I Fucking Hate Gauguin
Celebrated Paul Gauguin was a predator, but galleries care more about ticket sales
Believe me, I have been wanting to write this story for a long time. But I have had my doubts on doing so. Am I the kind of writer capable to offer good criticism? Would my story actually help shine a light on who Gauguin was? Wouldn’t it, instead, bring more attention to the painter? Yet here I am.
Growing up, I was in awe of the beauty of two Polynesian girls sitting by the shore, somewhere far away from Taranto, Italy. My parents’ duvet cover was a fabric rendering of Gauguin’s work, and a small reproduction of yet another painting by Gauguin hung in our hallway. The years passed, and knowledge — let me tell you — can change perceptions, so when I learned more about Gauguin’s life, my love for these reproduced paintings I grew up appreciating in my house slowly but surely disappeared.
I know many say that it is possible to disassociate the artwork from the artist. But it is in my opinion that such disassociation is only at times possible. And while I understand the intrinsic beauty of much of Gauguin’s oeuvre, I cannot allow myself to think about it in these terms.
Cancel culture has possibly been ruined by A) the fact that we call it cancel culture, and B) black and white thinking. There are nuances, situations, and people that/who should be assessed on a case by case basis. We are, after all human and are allowed mistakes, aren’t we?
However, I’m here to say that in my opinion, galleries, publishers, and writers should stop praising and celebrating Paul Gauguin. Why? Well, come along…
Paedophile and Colonial Sex Tourist Gauguin
Please don’t try to explain to me the difference between being attracted to children vs kids of puberty age. The difference doesn’t matter in the slightest.
Would Gauguin have already been cancelled if all he did he did it to white girls?
Gauguin was a paedophile and a racist who referred to Polynesian people as savages (though it didn’t stop him from allegedly giving them syphilis).
“He exploited his position as a westerner to make the most of the sexual freedoms available to him” — The Spectator
However, while all this knowledge is widespread, galleries still support his work and call him a “master”. Worse yet, people still adore his art and buy reproductions of the nude paintings portraying the teenage girls he had sex with.
I in no way or form intend to appear as a white-saviour type, but I wonder: Would Gauguin have already been cancelled if all he did he did it to white “civilized” girls?
Gauguin was born in Paris and grew up in Peru before returning to France, leaving his wife and children to their own devices. In 1891, he set out for Tahiti in quest of more exotic places. Gauguin spent the last 12 years of his life in Tahiti and Hiva Oa. Here, he took several adolescent girls as mistresses, fathered many children (by impregnating the young girls), and then some: creating the work he is known for.
Funnily enough, some museums are only now changing descriptions such as “relationship with a young woman” to “relationship with a 12 to 13 year old girl”.
But of course, if the wider population and Twitter-society don’t make a cancellation viral, why should museums and galleries; still profiting on work done at the expense of Polynesian people, young girls, all referred to as “savages and barbarians”.
Ok, ok - separate the artwork from the artists. Especially when the art is so good, so necessary, that it asks to be remembered. But isn’t the case of Gauguin something else? Aren’t his actions too much to not be remembered or talked about when looking upon his work? Especially given that the subject matter themselves reference clearly his actions?
Yet, this is not so in reality. People still want to see the exotic beauty of luscious green islands. The beauty of far-away exotic women, no matter the fact that they were not yet women at all. Teha’amana a Tahura, his wife, was only 13 when they were married.
So, if there is no way I can convince anyone to eliminate his work from galleries, art books, and more…can we at least always remember, talk about, and portray him in the light of the dirt he has done?
In the meantime, I’ll like to leave you with something to think about. This is what Wikipedia reports on him:
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (UK: /ˈɡoʊɡæ̃/, US: /ɡoʊˈɡæ̃/; French: [ø.ʒɛn ɑ̃.ʁi pɔl ɡo.ɡɛ̃]; 7 June 1848–8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinct from Impressionism. Toward the end of his life, he spent ten years in French Polynesia. The paintings from this time depict people or landscapes from that region.
His work was influential on the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse
Anything missing?
Yet, not even the forgetful collective that wrote this Wiki’s entry could resist the temptation to report about his return to France:
He affected an exotic persona, dressing in Polynesian costume, and conducted a public affair with a young woman still in her teens, “half Indian, half Malayan”, known as Annah the Javanese
It is time we either paint him in his true colours, or that we make him disappear.
Let’s remember the women he wronged, and forget the man.