Review by Choice Review
Like much recent scholarship on Gauguin, this book describes him as very much a man of his time: disenchanted with naturalism in art and fascinated with esoteric literature, symbolist poetry, and so-called "primitive" and non-Western cultures, religions and mythologies. The contribution of this catalogue is the identification of various "narrative strategies" the artist employed to develop content in his work. The most intriguing essay is by Linda Goddard, who tackles Gauguin's writings, which largely have been ignored by scholars. Goddard shows that Gauguin's disjointed, nonlinear, "collage-like" writing style--dismissed by critics and scholars, then and now, as naive, crude, and barbarous--was a deliberate strategy chosen by the artist to counter the academic style of art writing and criticism of his day. Thus it is compatible with the revolutionary aims and style of his visual art, which sought to discredit naturalism in favor of an art that was suggestive, hinting at a greater world of ideas behind appearances. Following the seven essays are eight thematically organized sections of color illustrations that correspond to the exhibition layout. Each section is fronted by a short explanatory text. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates through professionals. D. E. Gliem Eckerd College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
This book accompanies an exhibition at the Tate Modern, London, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Seven essays by art historians focus on Gauguin's use of stories and myth in his works. Thomson (Van Gogh Paintings: The Masterpieces) shows how Gauguin bucked the trend of the formal emphasis in late 19th-century art and reinvested his work with narrative meaning. Essays also explore how through Gauguin's writings, travels, and reading, he purposefully constructed his reputation and eventual myth. One essay also explores the artist's leftist political leanings as another reason he fled western Europe. Lastly, Gauguin's reception in England is examined, where the ultimate incarnation of his myth was created in English novelist W. Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence. The section of plates divides the images by subject, with accompanying texts on themes such as "Identity and Self-Mythology" and "Fictions of Femininity." VERDICT This book is recommended for readers interested in late 19th-century French art who possess some background in the subject, as the essays are specialized and scholarly in tone.-Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Univ., MA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Library Journal Review
