BASEL, SWITZERLAND – The new Gauguin exhibit that opened Sunday at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel is just what we all need to chase away the winter blues. Lusciously warm splashes of colour and scenes from southern climates that were exotic when he painted them, and remain so today despite easier access, offer a fine visit even to those who are not connoisseurs.
Most elaborate show ever, at Beyeler
To those who are, the exhibit represents a golden opportunity in ways that have little to do with the vivid colours used by the French “ground-breaking” artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) : the 50 paintings in the show are the first major retrospective in Switzerland in 60 years, and the first even by a neighbouring country in 10 years. The Beyeler, which is the country’s most-visited art museum, spent more than six years putting together the show, which it describes as “the most elaborate exhibition project in the Fondation Beyeler’s history. The museum is consequently expecting a record number of visitors.”
The materials Gauguin used for his paintings are delicate and not easily able to withstand travel; as a result many of the international museums and private owners were initially reluctant to allow the artwork to travel.
A special Gauguin shop and a media centre devoted to the artist’s work and the exhibit are two new features at the museum, created specially for the show.
The exhibit is also being touted as an example of Basel’s growing role as an international art centre, so the news that a private collector in the city sold a Gauguin for a record sum of reportedly nearly $300 million last week, right before the show opened, stunned and dismayed many in the city. ‘Nafea faa ipoipo’ (When will you marry?, 1892) is one of his most famous paintings, from the Tahiti period.
What to expect at the exhibit
(story continues below)
The museum provided background as the exhibit opened:
“The exhibition features Gauguin’s multifaceted self-portraits as well as the visionary, spiritual paintings
from his time in Brittany, but it mainly focuses on the world-famous paintings he created in Tahiti. In
them, the artist celebrates his ideal of an unspoilt exotic world, harmoniously combining nature and
culture, mysticism and eroticism, dream and reality.In addition to paintings, the exhibition includes a selection of Gauguin’s enigmatic sculptures that
evoke the art of the South Seas that had by then already largely vanished.There is no art museum in the world exclusively devoted to Gauguin’s work, so the precious loans come
from 13 countries: Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Great Britain (England and
Scotland), Denmark, Hungary, Norway, the Czech Republic, Russia, the Unites States and Canada …… Gauguin’s remarkable creations tell of his quest for a lost paradise on earth, of his dramatic history as
an artist who moved between different cultures during a life marked by passion and adventure.
No artist travelled as far and as adventurously in search of himself and a new kind of art as did Paul
Gauguin. As a sailor in the merchant navy who travelled the world following his childhood in Peru, as a
stockbroker and Bohemian in late 19th century Paris, as the friend and supporter of the Impressionists,
as a member of the artists’ commune in Pont-Aven in Brittany, as Van Gogh’s housemate in Arles, with
his unquenchable yearning for an island of the blessed, which he hoped to find in Tahiti and as a
hermit on the Marquesas Islands, Gauguin became one of the first modern nomads and art’s first
dropout critical of civilisation. He endowed modern art with a new kind of sensuousness, exoticism,
naturalness, and freedom. Many of his most beautiful masterpieces from all over the world are
exhibited in Basel.”
Fondation Beyeler opening hours: 10-18:00 daily, Wednesdays until 20:00
About the artist (from the Beyeler)
Republished with permission
“Paul Gauguin (born in 1828 in Paris, died in 1903 in Atuona on Hiva Oa, French Polynesia) has gone
down in art history as the painter of the South Pacific who created dreamlike pictures of an exotic
realm in beautiful, luminous colours. Among the icons of modern art, his groundbreaking works in pure
hues and flat forms revolutionized art and profoundly influenced the artists of the following generation.
No artist before Gauguin had so persistently searched for freedom and happiness in his life and art.This is another reason for the enormous popularity, which lasts until today.
It was not until the age of 35 that Gauguin abandoned his career as stockbroker and insurance
salesman to become a professional painter, turning from bourgeois to bohemian. Over the course of the
following nearly twenty years he produced a rich and diverse oeuvre, which aside from paintings and
sculptures included drawings, prints and writings.Based on unique masterpieces from world-renowned museums and private collections, the Fondation
Beyeler exhibition focuses on Gauguin’s mature period, when he arrived at his inimitable style.
Beginning with the radical works done in Brittany, the show continues with the famous pictures that
emerged in Polynesia – first on Tahiti, and finally on the Marquesas Islands. It is this imagery in
particular that illustrates the formal innovations and richness in content of Gauguin’s expressive
pictorial language. While the paintings form the core of the exhibition, the artist’s sculptures,
influenced by the Maohi culture, hold a special place, major examples being presented in a dialogue
with the renowned canvases. The accent lies on Gauguin’s innovative treatment of figure and
landscape, which in his hands enter a harmonious interplay.Dissatisfied with the situation in the Paris art world, Gauguin decided to explore Brittany, which at the
time was still largely unspoiled and promised fresh artistic impulses. During his stay in early 1888 in
the small town of Pont-Aven he developed an original style that became known as “Synthetism”. This
involved brilliant, pure colours, strong contrasts, and clearly outlined forms juxtaposed with one another
to produce imagery that emphasized the flat canvas. Unlike the Impressionists, Gauguin’s aim was to
record not visible reality but a deeper truth that resided beyond appearances. Soon he became the
mentor of a group of young artists who went down in history as the “School of Pont-Aven.” In Brittany
there emerged idyllic landscapes, groundbreaking sacred imagery, and complex self-portraits that
reflected the various roles in which the artist saw himself.On his search for “the primitive and savage,” Gauguin hoped to infuse his art with fresh life, and so, in
1891, he decided to emigrate to Tahiti. He imagined the island in the South Pacific as an unsullied
tropical paradise in which his talents could unfold free of all restraint. Yet soon Gauguin was forced to
realize that Tahitian reality did not conform with his ideal at all, because colonialization and
Christianization had largely destroyed the original culture. The artist attempted to compensate for this
disappointment by depicting the Polynesian landscape and people in terms of dreamlike, exotic beauty,
celebrating them in luminous compositions and expressive sculptures, and drawing inspiration from
Polynesian art and mythology.In 1893, Gauguin was forced to leave Tahiti again and return to France for financial and health
reasons. Yet Paris did not bring the success he hoped for, so in summer 1895 he decided to give Tahiti
a second chance. There emerged further numbers of major paintings reflecting the artist’s ideal of an
untouched, mysterious realm, in which his style achieved perfection. Yet despairing of his difficult
living conditions, poor health, and especially the premature death of his daughter, Aline, Gauguin
attempted to take his own life – under the consequences of which he would suffer for years. In the
meantime, the art world was beginning to take note of Gauguin’s work. In 1900, he was able to sign a
contract with the Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard that ensured him of a certain income.Gauguin felt increasingly uncomfortable on Tahiti because it seemed too European to him – and too
expensive as well. He also craved fresh impressions. So, in autumn 1901, he moved to the Marquesas
Island of Hiva Oa, about 1500 kilometres from Tahiti and supposedly wilder. Despite his failing health,
deep disillusionment, and further strokes of fate, his second Polynesian period brought more paintings
that celebrated the cultural richness and natural beauty of the region to the point of idealization and
achieved a pinnacle of aesthetic perfection. As previously on Tahiti, in the Marquesas the artist
championed the indigenous population. This led to a conflict with the colonial administration that
culminated in his being sentenced to a fine and prison term. Yet before he could go to jail, Paul
Gauguin died on May 8, 1903, ill, alone, and penniless, on Hiva Oa, where he still lies.In their combination of luminous beauty and melancholy yearning, Gauguin’s pictures remain as
alluring and enigmatic as ever. In a fascinating way they tell of a hope in finding a lost paradise on
earth, reflecting a dramatic, restless artist’s life spent traveling between cultures, compelled by a love
of life and despair. Although Gauguin foundered in the gap between utopia and harsh reality, the
unprecedented nature of his art and the uncompromising character of his life lent him legendary status.”