Happy Birthday to Post-Impressionist and Primitive artist Paul Gauguin. His color palette has been a source of inspiration for many designers for decades. He was born on June 7, 1848 (died May 8, 1903) in Paris France. Gauguin spent his early years living in Peru with his mother's family and it was there that his early appreciation of art began. (The imagery and costumes of Lima would later influence his art.) In 1865 He joined the Merchant Navy and then returned to Paris in 1872 where he became a successful stock broker.
Gauguin became fascinated with the Impressionists after seeing an exhibit in 1874. He purchased paintings by Monet, Manet, Pissarro and Renoir. Shortly thereafter he began painting in earnest. For a brief time he worked with Pissarro and then Cezanne.
After spending a short period with Vincent Van Gogh in Arles (1888), Gauguin increasingly abandoned imitative art for expressiveness through colour.
From 1891, he lived and worked in Tahiti and elsewhere in the South Pacific. During his first stay there (he was to leave in 1893, only to return in 1895 and remain until his death,) Gauguin discovered primitive art, with its flat forms and the violent colors belonging to an untamed nature. He then transferred that to canvas.
Savage Tales (Contes Barbares) was painted during his second sojourn in French Polynesia. He migrated back as his distaste and discouragement with the European civilization grew. Gauguin embarked on a quest to discover "supposedly noble savages, sensual "otherness" and an emotionally intense existence at the far edge of the world." In this work, two Polynesian women sit serenely in an Eden-like garden. The woman on the left sits in the lotus position, recalling Gauguin's fascination with the Buddha. Flattened, simplified forms reinforce an exotic combination of blues, red-browns, pink and other unusual colors, which blend together like notes of music. The results go beyond the naturalism of Impressionist painting to suggest a realm of mystery, symbolism and inward thoughts.
Savage Tales (Contes Barbares)
His work dismayed even his closest friends when it was first shown in Europe. Gauguin's style wielded enormous influence on the early twentieth century avant-garde (Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse,) and his unswerving belief in the visionary purity of painting served as a source of inspiration for many followers.
Gauguin died alone in 1903, nearly out of money. It wasn't until years later that his work received great praise and demanded high prices.
Today many stylemakers look to Gauguin for design inspiration and a palette from which to pull colors for textiles, accessories and artwork. Joss and Main, a leading on-line resource for unique home furnishings, hosted a sale this week devoted to Gauguin and French Polynesia.
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