Breton Dancing Girls and The Crucible

Breton Girls

Paul Gauguin, Breton Dancing Girls, 1888
"Now listen, you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let any of you breathe a word or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night. I saw the Indians smash my dear parents heads on the pillow next to mine, I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down." - Arthur Miller, The Crucible

Using what seemed a collective plea for justice, Abagail Williams led her friends in hand to hand treachery. In Breton Girls Dancing, Paul Gauguin paints three young women, dancing in a circle. One on the left, Mary Warren, reaches away, attempting to pull from the loop of untruths while Betty, pictured in the center, looks to Abagail for direction. Abagail Williams smirks toward the ground, the earth, the devil - er paradigm throughout Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

Abagail’s isolation from the rest of the group becomes evident in her apron, a different color from the other girls. The only blonde of the group, Abagail also holds the hands of both girls, indicating her control over the entire circle. Her pull alone dictates the direction of the girls.

Gauguin’s bold vertical line created by the steeple in the background visually separates Mary from the other two girls, emphasizing the divide created by Mary’s initial disloyalty to the church. The diagonal line descending from the top left corner opposed by the ascending line in the bottom left indicate Mary’s two potential paths: up to the green hills, or down with the rest of her comrades. Abagail and Betty, however, look to the right, where the hay will inevitably meet the falling hill and continue downwards. Even the dark cloud in the background halts just before Mary’s head, leaving her the only one with potential for escape from the vicious cycle.

  • 8:00 AM

Progression of Human Form - The Seed of the Areoi

Gauguin
Progression of Human Form
Curated by Shahzad Aslam


Paul Gauguin, The Seed of the Areoi, 1892
The triviality of subject matter by impressionists concerned post-impressionist painters like Gauguin. The Seed of the Areoi depicts a native Polynesian woman and offers insight into unrepresented cultures and peoples. Moreover, post-impressionists continued utilizing rich, vibrant colors, unique brushstrokes, and depictions of humans like impressionists. However, post-impressionist did away with many old values of the masters and represents a defining moment in art history. Gauguin led the movement through implementation of distorted, elongated figures for emotional effect, abnormal and illogical color, and increasingly geometric figures and forms as seen in The Seed of the Areoi.

  • 12:00 AM

Still Life with Fruit

Gauguin
Pomiculture
Curated by Paul Vedros
Paul Gauguin, Still Life with Fruit, 1888
Welcome back to Pomiculture, fellow frugivores! Comparing Paul Gauguin's Still Life with Fruit with Music and Fruit, reveals the many possible creative uses artists are capable of when depicting fruit in their paintings. Paul Gauguin was noted for the paintings depicting his travels to various Caribbean islands. These escapes from European life contributed to his disillusion of consumer culture, which influenced this painting. Gauguin uses fruit to convey excessive wealth in Europe compared to the islands, which is reinforced by the presence of a teapot and onlooking girl. Gauguin essentially used fruit to express his views on global economic inequality. That's the power of Pomiculture.
  • 2:55 PM

Manao Tupapau

Chase Coble
Paul Gauguin, Manao tupapau, 1892
Paul Gauguin desired an escape from Europe, but more specifically from France. Yet, as evinced in his own notes, he was unable to truly ever escape French rule due to his regrettably poor ability to speak any other language. Subsequently, Gauguin would be restricted to only journey the colonies of France.

Within his travels Gauguin’s subjects were most commonly brown, sometimes Samoan, and almost always youthful women. Any critic who would endeavor to cut down Gauguin’s work would almost certainly attack the ostensible flaws, sexism and racism. And accordingly a critic would almost always choose to first examine his most famous work, Manao tupapau, to bolster their arguments.

Through even the most perfunctory reading of Gauguin’s exceedingly abundant narrative/commentary on his life in the isles of French colonized Tahiti, Martinique, and Polynesia, one can understand the reductive quality of the aforementioned criticism.

The two principle reasons Gauguin painted M.t. were to address his distaste for Manet’s Olympia and his ambivalence concerning colonialism. Manet’s Olympia possesses a subject described by many as seductive, inviting, and erotic. Olympia’s viewers feel solicited, if not appealed to come into Olympia’s bed to enjoy her pleasures.

Gauguin expresses his disfavor of this female allurer by making M.t’s viewers feel almost shameful for the entreaties. Tehura, Gauguin’s long-time mistress and subject for M.t., lies frightfully on her stomach exactly opposite the stance of Olympia. Her face evokes auras of fear, abandonment, and contempt – also directly contrasting Manet’s subject. M.t.’s viewer cannot feel the same invitation, if anything he should feel rejection and scorn.

So, what else can we glean from M.t. on the subject of colonialism? With Tehura serving as any indicator, we simply understand that we can’t empathize with her strife. The viewer’s occupation of her home, and attempt at her, cannot be comprehended from the recipient’s end – colonialism can’t be understood via Colonizers to Colonized. Also, let the viewer begin to question the significance of the ominous figure overseeing Tehura. Dark, without discernable shape, and alarming; Gauguin’s reflection on colonialism should be overt.
  • 12:00 AM

Day of the God (Mahana No Atua)

Day of the God
Paul Gauguin, Day of the God, 1893
Paul Gauguin returned to France from Tahiti in 1893, his declining health and financial situation greatly impacted his painting in the years to follow. In 1894, Gauguin painted a mere sixteen pictures. One of those paintings was Day of the God (Mahana No Atua), which depicts a Tahitian beach and a religious ceremony.

The painting represents a universal religion, with the idol Hina centered in the middle. The images all derive from Gauguin’s personal experiences in Tahiti and culminate in the landscape. Along the pool’s edge are three women, each representing the “Ages of Man” which include birth, life, and death. The birth stage has the woman in fetal position with her toes barley grazing the water. While, the life stage include the woman sitting up straight and feet fully immersed into the water. Finally the death stage has the woman completely turned away from the viewer, and the source of life in the picture, which is water.

Gauguin doesn’t show the viewer the exact purpose of this painting instead he incorporates numerous symbols and meaning throughout. “Don't paint too much direct from nature. Art is an abstraction! Study nature then brood on it and treasure the creation which will result, which is the only way to ascend towards God - to create like our Divine Master” a quote by Gauguin illustrates that painting was a religious meditation and a way to navigate through the questions he had. He allows for the painting to mean what the viewer wants and doesn’t attempt to impose his own idea on religion and philosophy on the viewer.



  • 12:00 AM