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ARTHI 119: Modernism and Modernity
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A New Take on Gauguin
Wednesday, October 17, 2012 @ 10:11 PM
Contrary to many feminist art
historians, such as Griselda Pollock who place Gauguin’s work in a manipulative
light, Jane Duran takes a different approach. She states that the paintings of
Gauguin, rather than having a sexist manipulation, display the Polynesian women
in a manner with a certain sort of feminine grace. What many interpret as a
‘savage’ depiction of the native people, Gauguin thought the native women to
retain a certain sort of innocence and a transcendental sacredness. This idea
of them Duran believes stems from his personal relationships with the females.
Duran stats that Paul Gauguin thought these women to be eternal female and saw
them free of the artifice of the European middle class women. He uses a more
natural, simple depiction to capture this aspect of the women. His less
detailed images were not to display savagery of the natives, but a simplistic
femininity the European women of the time lacked. This is an unusual
interpretation of the females in Gauguin’s paintings. Most feminist art historians regarded the
simplicity in body style to be a display of savagery or dominance of the
European male over the female body. Although there is evidence of this in many of
his works, images like Tehamana Has Many
Parents exemplifies a innocence and feminist quality to the images.
Blog Post By Kristen Barrett