Product Description
Following the life and artistic career of one of the greatest of the Postimpressionist painters, an illustrated biography of Gauguin includes information culled from his letters and writings, and reproductions of many of his paintings. Original. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Beautiful and Factual
Having just traveled to the Society Islands I wanted more info on Paul Gaugin.This book is the best of all I have read on him although it is short and sweet.Beautiful artwork and packed with facts on his life.Has renewed my interest in art!

great book with an emotional feeling !
This book,as all the books of this France Company, are absolutely unmissable for all of you who like Paul Gauguin art. The book offer beautiful pictures and many detailsabout Gauguin life that I've neverfound in any other book talking about the same topic. The only weak pointof this chain of books is that the publisher choosed a bad glue for thosebooks thus the cover and a few page jumped out of the book. Apart thisannoying problem the books of this chain are simply great ( IF YOU HAVEYOUR OWN GLUE) .

Beautifully edited and printed book with glorious color
Cachin has beautifully edited Gauguin's paintings and "barbaric" wood carvings in a journalistic style with varieties of print sizes wrapped around graphics. Juicy tidbits about the artist flamboyant personal andartistic lives are combined with photos and personal descriptions ofGauguin by comtemporary admirers and detractors. A fresh look at theartist. You'll like it! ... Read more

Product Description
Noa Noa written by author Paul Gauguin is a detailed journal of the European author's two year stay in Tahiti and is widely considered to be a great book. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Noa Noa is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Paul Gauguin is highly recommended. Published by Classic Books America and beautifully produced, Noa Noa would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Authentic and interesting
Having just traveled to the Society Islands I wanted more info on Paul Gaugin.This translation of his journal provided insight I wouldnot have gotten otherwise.Combined with other biographies it rounded out the picture.Recommend it if you are interested in either the South Pacific Islands or Gaugin and his art.

noa noa, a-oka
I picked it up for a school project and it was fantastic. It's just a nice little journal, I feel there is more but I don't know for sure, this may be all there is in the tahiti journal of Paul Gauguin. Thepictures are great, the translation is very well done. Excellent read.

Gauguin's record of one of his stays in the South Sea Paradise.
This is a jewel of an art book by one of the greatest painters of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Originally considered too racy to publish in France, this 2005 English edition of the banned 1894 illustrated personal journal is probably how Paul Gauguin would have liked to have seen his text and art work combined for publication. The color and layout do justice to his artistic creations.The only change the artist might have still wished for was to have the book's format slightly larger since some of his woodcuts and the original journal itself are slightly larger than this reproduction of the work.
The book has a short 1962 introduction by W. Somerset Maugham that is somewhat amusing in that it tells how Maugham traveled to Tahiti to research Gauguin for a book he was considering writing about the island's most famous painter. He foundone of the actual huts where Gauguin had lived and worked and purchased one of the glass panels that Gauguin had painted for one of the hut's three doors. The children living in the hut had passed the time scratching the windows clean and already destroyed the other two door paintings. Maugham bought the half door containing the one surviving glass panel with its painting of"Eve, nude, with the apple in her hand" still intact for four hundred francs and had it shipped back to his home in New York. It was in his writing room at the time he wrote the introduction for this volume.
Relating the antidote of Maugham's good luck and prowess at art collecting was the only subject covered in the introduction. But it did illustrate how little remained in Tahiti of Gauguin's stay in the Island Paradise. There was even less left there after the famous writer's research visit.
Gauguin's text is much more interesting. He tries to capture some of the purity of the native culture that was being quickly destroyed by the European invasion. I particularly liked the stories of one of his treks into the land of the Gods near the center of the island as well as his story of taking a local wife (concubine) from among the natives. After the deal was made with the 13-year-old girl's parents and stepparents, she accompanied her new mate home. After eight days the woman was required to return to her home and if she had decided she didn't like the match, she never returned to him. That's how divorce was handled in Gauguin's Paradise.
Gauguin attempted to explain the secret and mysterious history, legends and religious beliefs of the natives. His paintings and wood block prints helped him with this documentation. Why he suddenly left his idyllic life in paradise after only a two year stay to return to France in 1896 isn't explained in his journal. He only describes the pain it caused him and his beautiful native mate who he never saw again.
This is a must read for any fan of Paul Gauguin's artwork. Unfortunately, it only answers a few of the many unanswered questions about the great painter's life. And new questions are brought up and then abandoned. Personally, I would love to have read more about the former cannibals he met while living in his South Seas Paradise. Too often Gauguin only touched on some really fascinating fact and then left the reader dangling and desperate to know more. It's still a beautifully illustrated must read!

Paul Gauguin history
This was very interesting reading just before going to the South Seas.Wonderful to see the islands as he saw them and described them in this journal.Well worth reading!

Understanding Gauguin
This is a lovely book... and, brief though it is, helped me to understand more about Gauguin's reasons behind his actions.I read it at a perfect time - when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY was holding one of their most important exhibits on Gauguin and featured his wood cuts.It's a colourful, passionate and painful journey. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1889, Paris hosted the legendary Exposition Universelle (World's Fair), a massive cultural exhibition which transformed the face of French culture to come. The Eiffel Tower was built for it, the composer Claude Debussy first heard Javanese music there, and the painter Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), reacting against his exclusion from its arts component, organized an exhibit called L'Exposition de Peintures du Groupe Impressionniste et Synthesiste, on the walls of the Cafe Volpini, presenting the newest works by himself and his friends. It was the moment at which he "became Gauguin," for it was here that he premiered what is now known as the Volpini Suite, an amazing portfolio of 11 lithographs printed on radiant canary yellow paper, which marked the coalescence of his motifs (the fruitbearers, the mourning Eve, the woman in the waves) and the commencement of his mature style. The Suite also gives a chronicle of Gauguin's travels in Martinique, Brittany and Arles, and records the constellation of the Pont Aven group. Gauguin reconstructs this landmark exhibition, demonstrating the radicality of the works produced by Gauguin and his friends (Charles Laval, Leon Fauche, Emile Schuffenecker, Louis Anquetin, Georges Daniel, Emile Bernard, Louis Roy and Ludovic Nemo), and examining all paintings, woodcuts, ceramics, prints and drawings by Gauguin related to the show. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

How Gauguin became Gauguin
This book is the catalogue for an exhibition held at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Cleveland Museum of Art and centers on a series of iconic prints (zincographs) that Gauguin showed during the 1889 World Fair in Paris. Being prevented from officially showing his art in the Fair itself, he chose to display it on the walls of Mr. Volpini's Café des Arts (alongside works by other artists belonging to the "synthetist movement"), which was located within the premises of the Fair. The "Volpini Suite", as this series later came to be known, is a concentrate ofall Gauguin's art, his first breakthrough as a modern master, and is thoroughly studied here by experts in the field. The text is accompanied by beautiful illustrations of about 60 works by Gauguin and his friends of the Pont-Aven school (Emile Bernard, Louis Anquetin...), which makes this book an interesting and erudite (sometimes too erudite...)addition to the literature on the artist. Do not expect a complete retrospective on Gauguin though, as this is not the aim of this study. ... Read more

Product Description
- paperback versions of the highly successful hardback series; - an entertaining and humorous introduction to famous artists; - excellent colour reproductions of the artists work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

"Teacher's Choice Award" Crystal Productions Catalog
My sixth graders always enjoy reading about a new artist in this delightfully written and beautifully illustrated series.The cartoon style of writing, that is used on some pages, is another technique used to make the artist's biography interesting and funny to the students.All of this terrific information, beautiful pictues, and students that argue about who GETS to read the book FIRST, [...]

I have to wonder about the first reviewer who gave this book only 2 stars.Maybe s/he teaches concrete.

Silly
These cartoon-like books that Venezia puts out are pretty lame.They include more art by him than the artist covered.They look like cartoons or comic books and read like one.They do hold some valuable information, but I prefer the series "What makes a . . .a . . .?" by Muhlberger. ... Read more

Product Description
This colorful and exciting book follows the French artist Paul Gaugin on his journey to a tropical South Sea island: Tahiti.Through Gaugin's colorful paintings, young readers learn about the wonders of the island, the lives of its inhabitants, and its exotic tropical plants and animals. ... Read more

Product Description
The life of Paul Gauguin is one of the richest and most mythic in the history of Western art. A banker and "Sunday painter," he left behind family and homeland and sailed to the South Seas, seeking a life "in ecstasy, in peace, and for art." Gauguin Tahiti, the first major retrospective of the artist's work in fifteen years, offers an in-depth study of the fabled Polynesian years that have so defined our image of the painter. Alongside essays by leading American and French critics on every aspect of Gauguin's art, from the legendary canvases to his sculptures, ceramics, and innovative graphic works, are discussions of the Polynesian society, culture, and religion that helped shape them; an in-depth biographical narrative of the artist's life, with the many epiphanies, frustrations, and discoveries that make his time in the South Seas one of the most mythologically potent episodes in the history of Western art; and a chronicle of his changing fortunes in the century since his death. At the center of it all is Gauguin's 1897 masterpiece, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, the summation and crowning glory of his mature career, presented with unprecedented depth and authority. Over one hundred years later, Gauguin remains one of the most enigmatic and attractive figures of 19th-century art, the very pivot of modernism, and Gauguin Tahiti finally portrays this crucial period of his life in all its color and drama.You know that I have Indian blood, Inca blood in me, and it's reflected in everything I do. It's the basis of my personality; I try to confront rotten civilization with something more natural, based on savagery.--Paul Gauguin

Essays by George T.M. Shackelford, Claire Frèches-Thory, et al.

Clothbound, 9.5 x 11 in./372 pgs / 260 color and 80 b & w. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Gauguin fot the insider
This book gives a lot of informaton over the Tahiti-period of Gauguin, not only of his paintings but also of his his sculpture and graphic work. It's state of the art, but a bit dull. Beside, if you want to know more about the exoticism in Gauguin's oeuvre or the symbolism in his work I recommend Gauguin's skirt by Stephen Eisenman or Symbolism by Rodolphe Rapetti. On the other hand, if you are interested in the total output of the artist (and not only his paintings), this book is highly recommemded.

Gauguin:The Artist, Author, Ethnographer, and Promoter
Most art books give you lots of gorgeous plates and a view from 50,000 feet of the artist's entire life.Gauguin Tahiti was a pleasant and positive exception from that generalization.

The book does contain lots of gorgeous plates, but also shows a tremendous number of sketches and source materials backed with extensive notes on what the author wrote and said.This enables a careful reader to appreciate the development of icons, iconography, themes and cosmology.The number of interesting essays in the book is unexpectedly large:17 by my count where the usual art book has perhaps 3 or 4.The essays come at Gauguin from slightly different perspectives, helping you to fill in a 360 degree view over time.

Most art books focus on the artist's best known work.I was very pleased to see this book deal thoroughly with Gauguin's relatively little known sculptures, wood carvings, unusual prints and experimentation with materials and processes.To me, that made this book a particularly rich experience.

If the book has a weakness, it's that the authors of the essays cannot quite bring themselves to describe the less attractive parts of Gauguin's life style and personal habits.So you end up with a partially sanitized package.Like so many artists, his ability to communicate visually was marred by a weak ability to relate to others in constructive and supportive ways.

Be prepared to spend time with this book.Each essay builds on insights from earlier ones with lots of cross referencing of images.As a result, your knowledge will build to a level similar to that of taking an MFA course for a semester on Gauguin's Tahitian and South Sea works.

If you read only one art book this year, you would do well to pick this one.This book will also make a wonderful gift for anyone who loves Gauguin's paintings and wants to learn more about his entire oeuvre.

Take a close look!

He was a man of amazing talent
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) is one of 19th Century Europe's most mythic artists. He was a man of amazing talent, eccentric behavior, and controversial conduct. Leaving a career as a banker, Gauguin became obsessed with painting, eventually abandoning his family and sailing to the South Sea islands of Polynesia where he spent out the remainder of his life painting, sculpturing, producing innovative graphic works and unusual ceramics. Enhanced with 260 color and 80 b/w illustrations, Gauguin Tahiti is wonderfully presented, highly recommended, in-depth, 380-page biography of this gifted man's life and work as a European master artist who "went native" in the tropical paradise of Tahiti. ... Read more

Product Description
Revealing documents, reprinted from rare, limited edition, throw much light on the painter’s inner life, his tumultuous relationship with van Gogh, evaluations of Degas, Monet, and other artists; hatred of hypocrisy and sham, life in the Marquesas Islands, much more. Twenty-seven full-page illustrations by Gauguin. Preface by Emil Gauguin.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Gauguin In His Own Words
Gauguin wasn't Picasso or Munch. Picasso thought his diary would someday make him even more famous as an important writer who also dabbled in the visual arts. Edvard Munch thought that his poetry-prose journals were as good as his paintings--even the title of his journals "We Are Flames Which Pour Out of the Earth" gives his readers a clue to the seriousness of his private journals. Gauguin didn't consider himself a great writer. He didn't feel that the words he was scribbling were all that important. He said "I should like to write as I paint my pictures,--that is to say, following my fancy, following the moon, and finding the title long afterwards." Gauguin was true to that desire.
Also unlike the poetry of Picasso and Munch, a reader doesn't have to carefully parse obscure poetic verses to maybe gain an insight into the mind of the artists. In Picasso's case he loved to write in different languages and in different styles and riddles and often in a stream of consciousness manner. As with his art, he couldn't resist toying with his audience. Gauguin wrote straightforward descriptions of people, places and things that fascinated him. One of the best parts of this book is Gauguin's eyewitness account of Vincent Van Gogh, his housemate's strange behavior. One evening Vincent ran toward him on the street with an open razor in his hand, but stopped suddenly in front of him, bowed and then turned and went home alone. Once there, he cut off his ear, taped up the wound enough to allow him to go out into the streets wearing a Basque Beret pulled down to conceal the missing ear. Van Gogh went straight to a local house of ill repute "and gave the manager his ear, carefully washed and placed in an envelope. `Here is a souvenir of me,' he said. Then he ran off home, where he went to bed and to sleep." The next morning the local police accused Gauguin of murdering his housemate, until Gauguin, who fearing for his own life, had spent the night in a hotel checked the undisturbed body in the blood-soaked bed and discovered his friend to still be alive. The hapless police then called an ambulance, but didn't apologize for their incompetent bungling.
Gauguin hated government bureaucrats and felt they, along with the French clergy were exploiting and destroying the pure culture of the South Seas and anywhere else France controlled.
This is fascinating, easy-to-read, meandering and very natural journal-diary. It provides lots of fresh and politically incorrect views of Gauguin's world in a very pithy style.

The True Iconoclast
It is impossible to read and re-read GAUGUIN'S INTIMATE JOURNALS and not be inspired to jump into the thrills of creativity and rebellion that sparks greatness in artists.Paul Gauguin's life has been well captured in films, in poems, in numerous biographies, in essays - but none of these supply what these extraordinary journals offer: here is the motivation for the fauvist mind and career and art movement Gauguin sprouted.

In these beautifully translated journal entries we learn why Gauguin, a self-taught artist, son of financially secure parents, a businessman able to succeed in the financial world of his era, would leave all of that to first paint in France with the likes of his roommate Vincent Van Goghand ultimately flee to the Pacific Islands where his unusual and avant-garde painting style set all of the art world into motion to change.

Beginning with the preface by his son Emil Gauguin, these journals are accompanied by full page, full color reproductions of some of this finest paintings, works which take on new life wheninformed by the accompanying words of the artist.This is a splendid book well worth adding to the art library of everyone.Grady Harp, October 05

Lots of fragments
This is a 'journal'. It's not a diary, nothing so organized, and he claims repeatedly that "This is not a book." Instead, it's a sequence of slightly connected thoughts, anecdotes, and aphorisms. Give the book time, though, it develops into something much more revealing in its second half.

Gauguin is known for his abrupt departure from respected commercial and family life into the most primitive world available to him. His son prefaces this book by explaining that the parting of ways was necessary and mutual. This book itself presents a few hints at what drove him out of polite and wealthy society - a distaste for the venal gendarmerie, a contempt for the church, and more.

What I found more interesting, though, was his recollections of rooming with Van Gogh and his first-person narrative of the Impressionist revolution in France. He sweetens any bitterness by describing the Tahitian people, as a society, as a system of mores, and as healthy and beautiful human animals.

There's a slight self-conciousness here. Gauguin seemed to be writing for some imagined reader, and in fact sent these journals to be published. I feel that not nearly enough is said; what's written here does little to describe the personal angel or demon that drove him to the farthest point on the planet. Still, I value the master's words.

I admit that I'm not fond of his art. Still, I acknowledge the place that history has given him, and I feel somewhat more of a person for reading what he chose to write.

//wiredweird ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Refinement of artistic work through multiple castings.
The line that has always remained fixed in my mind was Gauguin's comment
on the refinement of a work. I think on a very basic level, to simply make a primary statement and move on has a very satisfying feeling to it. Miles Davis, among others, was fond of one takes because there is a spirit that is captured in that take, often lost on recurrent ones because of increased expectations, abstraction of an "ideal", and trying to recall of the "good stuff" while dismissing the "bad". Gauguin's work and life capture this idea quite well, and he voices a call-to-arms by bringing to light this notion of the non-refinement of the work. In Japanese ink calligraphy, the calligrapher has but one chance to draw to the rice paper; the live jazz improvisation must consider ALL of the performance to be part of the statement. It is a further comment against the hyperabstraction of Western artistic ideals, psuedo-ideals, that canonize relative cultural ideals and discard that which is considered non-beatiful or non-meaningful. ... Read more

Product Description
"May the day come--and perhaps soon--when I can flee to the woods on a South Sea island and live there in ecstasy, in peace and for art," Gauguin wrote to his wife, Mette, in 1890. As both art history and enduring legend have shown, Gauguin's life in the South Seas was anything but ecstatic or peaceful, even as he created some of the most revolutionary and iconic objects of his time. This book, to date the most comprehensive volume of the painter's letters to be published, offers an uncensored glimpse into Gauguin's life, from his days as a young newlywed reporting on the birth of his first child, through his early developments as an artist and finally throughout the extraordinary adventure of his years in Tahiti and the Marquesas. Gauguin's writings, from Noa Noa to his Intimate Journals, have proven him a talented, uninhibited literary stylist. Nowhere is this more evident than in these letters to many of his closest associates and, above all, to Mette, for whom he detailed his plans, described artworks in progress, and gave running accounts of his life and states of mind on distant shores. Published to coincide with the centennial of Gauguin's death and with a major international exhibition, Letters to His Wife and Friends restores to print, after many years, one of the most compelling, intimate and revealing epistolary autobiographies ever assembled.Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5 in./288 pgs / 0 color 16 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20123 ... Read more

Product Description
Inspired by a primitive way of life, Paul Gauguin came to reject the world of the Impressionists, leaving Parisian society in search of paradise. Explore the life of this 19th-century French artist through his astonishingly vibrant and exotic paintings.The DK ArtBook series presents both the life and works of each artist within the cultural, social, and political context of their time. To make the books easy to consult, they are divided into three areas -- the life and works of the artist, historical and cultural background, and analysis of major works -- which are identifiable by side bands. Each spread focuses on a specific theme, with an introductory text and several annotated illustrations. Few art history texts contain such abundance of full-color illustrations. The index section is also illustrated and gives background information on key figures and the location of the artist's works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Informative--great for students
Well, I won't waste your time. The bottom line-- is this book is worth buying. Its got great insight on many of Gauguin's paintings, and even discusses his background and influences. A must for any art student, or art buff. Your money will not be wasted! For ten bucks, you'll be buying a book you'll use time and time again. Good luck, and happy book buying! ... Read more

Product Description
Explores the often contradictory history of artist Paul Gauguin, considering the scandalous rumors that surrounded him, the inspirations for his work, the influences of his contemporaries, and his painful death. 12,500 first printing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good; solidly researched
In terms of scholarship, this is an excellent biography; it's very thoroughly researched about Gauguin's extended family and his upbringing; his marriage and other relationships.However, there were times that I found the author's voice too intrusive.For instance, when describing Van Gogh's and Gauguin's nine weeks' residence together at Arles, I felt the author needed to stop referring to Van Gogh as a "madman".

Then again, there was some unnecessary speculation regarding Gauguin's allegedly erotic feelings for his little daughter, Aline.I sincerely dislike when quick-fix psychology is used by an author who's 'analyzing' an artist's paintings, and 'meanings' are assigned thereto.One man's: he's-got-a-little-girl-fixation-because-she's-painted-sleeping-in-her-bed-with-her-back-turned-toward-the-viewer, is another's:It's a portrait of a sleeping child.Mary Cassatt once portrayed a little girl who's flopped into an armchair with her legs slightly open; does that portrayal make her a potential pervert, too?

The author seemed to veer from admiration for Gauguin's artistic accomplishments to an almost mocking tone regarding the (again) 'meanings' of the Tahitian paintings (and/or injecting a tone of derision when describing Gauguin's life in Tahiti).My point is, a better biographer would take an objective view of his subject; this one, about 70% of the time, doesn't.

I also wish more, and/or clearer, larger reproductions of Gauguin's work had been included with this volume.Other than these provisos, I found this a well researched and readable biography.

Vivid and disturbing
This is a disturbing story.My previous knowledge of Paul Gauguin basically came from a subway ad for the New York School of Visual Arts, which stated that at age 35 he was working as a bank teller.Being a late-bloomer myself, I wanted to know more.Although this is a long book (565 pages of text plus notes and index), it never got tiring for me.I remained fascinated all the way through.Gauguin created some wonderful works, but I really would not want to have known him.He comes across as very childish and irresponsible (which is perhaps a characteristic that all artists share to some degree).His journeys to Brittany and the South Seas are rendered in detail as Sweetman unflinchingly documents Gauguin's descent into drug addiction, madness and destitution.Sweetman also deftly analyzes Gauguin's work and the impact of those influences, creating a vivid portrait of the artist and his world.Parts of the book are horrifying, especially the descriptions of Gauguin's syphillis-ravaged body.Gauguin was a strange man and his story is an unsettling one.I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art.The book has many black-and-white photographs of Gauguin and his milieu as well as color reproductions of several of the works discussed.This book will guarantee a deeper appreciation of Gauguin's work.

Difficult Reading...
I am a voracious reader with some knowledge of art history, but after attempting to read this book for the last six months, I am finally stopping at the half-way mark.It is certainly full of new facts and demonstrates an exhaustive amount of research, but I find Sweetman's narrative plodding and unorganized.Also, the book pre-supposes the reader's depth of knowledge on the subject -- the lack of which is quite obviously my problem in enjoying the book.

The First & Only Bio of Gauguin
Brilliant biographer David Sweetman has created a masterpiece with his biography of Gauguin.I don't know how he did it; but I was in awe throughout the reading of this well-thought-out and researched book.Gauguin was a complicated man; and through his exhaustive research, Sweetman gives us the rare opportunity to journey with one of the most colourful and oft-misunderstood artists in history.There are so many new facts uncovered in this book... I could feel the spirit of Gauguin rise up and rebel...http://www.mystic-art.com

Go Get "Gauguin"!
I am disappointed to see that this book is out of print but if you have any interest in Gauguin whatsoever, you should try to get your hands on a copy. This is such an excellent book! Mr. Sweetman has clearly done hishomework and he writes beautifully. By the time you finish this book youwill feel as though you knew Gauguin for, as much as such a thing ispossible, Mr. Sweetman gets you inside the artist's head so that you knowwhat he was thinking and what he was feeling at all the important points ofhis life. The author gives a very balanced view of Gauguin and of theimportant people in his life, including his wife Mette. Gauguin is notportrayed as a saint. Mr. Sweetman does not let him off the hook for theshabby way he sometimes treated his friends and family. In other words,this behavior is not excused just because Gauguin was a brilliant artist.On the other hand, Gauguin is not demonized for his irresponsible behavioreither, as he sometimes could be a caring person and a good friend. Gauguinleft notebooks and correspondence, so when Mr. Sweetman gives you hisinterpretations of the meanings of some of Gauguin's greatest paintings heis not whistling in the dark. Gauguin himself is oftimes present to tellyou what he was trying to do. One of the nice things about the book is thatit does not focus exclusively onGauguin. You learn what what was going onin the Paris art world. There is interesting information given about otherartists, such as Camille Pissarro and Emile Bernard and you also learnabout some of the art dealers, such as Durand-Ruel and Vollard. You aregiven in depth information of what was going on in the French communitieson Tahiti and in the Marquesas. Mr. Sweetman also provides a sympatheticand reasonable explanation for Gauguin's behavior following the death ofVincent Van Gogh. As Mr. Sweetman says in the book, the picture most peoplehave of Gauguin is based almost completely on the portrayal by AnthonyQuinn in the 1950's movie "Lust For Life". If you read thiswonderful book you will get a much more well-rounded picture of what thisvery complicated man was truly like. ... Read more

Product Description
In this magisterial book, Henri Dorra synthesizes more than fifty years of study to present a comprehensive examination of Paul Gauguin's symbolism. Drawing on his profound grasp of the artistic and social contexts in which Gauguin worked, Dorra provides new, complex insights into and interpretations of Gauguin's multilayered symbolism. The Symbolism of Paul Gauguin is lavishly illustrated with a major visual compendium of the artist's prodigious output. The highly readable narrative, based on a sophisticated understanding of Gauguin's oeuvre, offers a masterly interpretation of recurrent images and their interrelationships in the contemporaneous artistic and social context.
Dorra discusses Gauguin's iconography and the artist's treatments of similar themes in various media, from prepatory drawings for paintings to related ceramics and wood carvings. He traces Gauguin's meanings in literary sources from classical mythology and the Bible to late ninetheenth-century literature. He also links the form and content of the artist's work to his unusual ancestry and upbringing. As the final scholarly work by an internationally recognized expert on nineteenth-century French symbolism, this book provides a profound new perspective on Gauguin and his work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

New perspective on Gauguin
This book is the culmination of a lifetime's study of the life and art of Paul Gauguin by a professor who has developed his material over years of teaching and analysis. It offers many new perspectives on the life and thinking of this artist, and is a must read for any person interested in the artist, his associates and the cultural world in which they worked. ... Read more

Product Description
Noa Noa written by author Paul Gauguin is a detailed journal of the European author's two year stay in Tahiti and is widely considered to be a great book. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Noa Noa is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Paul Gauguin is highly recommended. Published by Classic Books America and beautifully produced, Noa Noa would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent translation.
Very readable translation.This is not the best edition if you want good reproductions of drawings. But in terms of getting a good text for a good price it's great.

I'm not really going to review the book itself as I assume most people who are here know that this was Gauguin's attempt to put together a what he hoped would be a best selling travelogue that would promote his art.He was hoping to cash in on the success of Pierre Loti's best seller the Marriage of Loti which was set in exotic Tahiti. It never made any money, but this is mostly because of it's idiosyncratic style.But for anyone interested in Gauguin's Tahitian experience it's great.Also check out his intimate journals which came out posthumously and cover also his life before Tahiti.

It's actually an experimental novel
Typically considered a journal or memoir, Gauguin's book is in fact an early type of experimental multimedia novel.Thematically, Gauguin burlesques Pierre Loti's "Marriage of Loti", while structurally he interleaves narrative with his own highly-inventive Post-impressionist woodcarvings.It's a fine book: Gauguin could have been a great novelist, if he weren't already busy.

A Unique Opportunity
Though you may quarrel with Guaguin tactics or motivations, his art stands alone--brilliant, moving, subtle.It is always intriquing to hear the voice of a master painter and "Noa, Noa," affords that opportunity.

Noa Noa
Contemplations visual, intellectual and spiritual.In 1891, French painter Paul Gauguin fled to the island of Tahiti - "a sixty-three days' voyage, sixty-three days of feverish expactancy;"begun as an unofficial visit regarding the imminent death of the island's king Pomare -- and resulting in a profoundly moving sea-change (spirit, observation, happiness).The Tahitian theology, natural history, and especially the progress of his relationships - a gift. This is a good book to read BEFORE embarking on your "desert island" voyage, but beware!Hard to top once you're there on some other island.An exceptional journal, with a graceful translation (it seems) by O. F. Theis from the French.Rated 9 (needs more color plates of paintings! but a lovely, portable paper edition) Other recommended travel/discovery books: Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia, by Mark Jenkins.1993 HarperPerennial pb. Letters from Iceland, by W. H. Auden & Louis MacNeice.1990 Paragon House pb. Why Come To Slaka? by Malcolm Bradbury.1991 Penguin Books pb. Travels With Lizbeth (writing/homelessness), by Lars Eighner. The Starship & the Canoe (Freeman Dyson & son George) Bird of Jove (falconry), by David Bruce.1994 Texas A&M pb. The Earthsea Trilogy, by Ursula K. Le Guin Ishi (anthropology/Native American history), by Theodora Kroeber ... Read more

Product Description
This catalog offers a retrospective of Gauguin’s entire artistic career, beginning with his early impressionist works through to his final masterpieces painted on the Marquesas Islands, where Gauguin was inspired to create artworks that are among the most vivid in the history of painting. "Gauguin had clearly decided to violate social norms, destroy consecrated artistic standards and create a scandal wherever he went, and he was successful. He wanted to be a dissenter, a rebel, an outsider and a renegade, but through art he also wanted to rebuild the fantastic images of a Golden Age that had dominated his mind from his first travels around the world." (From the introductory essay by Eisenman.) This book features a magnificent sampling of the artist’s paintings and an absorbing introduction by Stephen F. Eisenman, a noted scholar on artistic movements of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Italian Gauguin
This book is the catalogue for an exhibition held in Rome in late 2007, early 2008. The introductory essays are quite interesting insofar as they tackle some rarely studied themes of Gauguin's art, such as his relationship topaper (as a medium supportinghis prints or drawings, but also as a source of inspiration throughprinted reproductions of old masters' works with the birth of photography), his idea of a mythic "golden age" which hesupposedly sought in Polynesia (and which may recall the myth of the golden age found in Ancient Rome), Gauguin as a bridge to modernity through his simplification of forms and pure colors heralding Matisse, Derain and the Fauves (this particular aspect is recurrent in any Gauguin study, though), or Gauguin's relationship with Italy (apparently a tenuous one, since he never set foot in Italy, but actually a very important one aesthetically when one takes into account his keen interest in Giotto and Boticelli).

On the whole, an interesting book, far from exhaustive on its subject, whith reasonably good half-page illustrations (and some horrendous black-and-white thumbnails though...). Now, the selection of Gauguin's works has very few masterpieces and many average if not minor early paintings, which is a little disappointing, considering the self-proclaimed goal of the exhibition covered by the book (i.e. to explore and illustrate the importance of myth in Gauguin's art). ... Read more

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The creativity of the most celebrated artists of the modern period has been enriched and expanded by their work in the print medium. Exploiting the potential of such techniques as woodcut, lithography, etching and screenprint, as well as other processes, these artists have added immeasurably to their expressive vocabularies. Many have availed themselves of the expertise offered by master printers in professional workshops and have benefited from the fruits of such collaboration. They have found inspiration in traditional printed formats, such as portfolios and illustrated books, and have used them to explore thematic interests. As a result of these experiences, printmaking has exerted influence on their work in other mediums and has become integral to their creative thinking as a whole. Finally, the fact that prints are made in editions rather than as single impressions has enabled these artists to reach a much broader audience than would otherwise be possible.~This volume includes the work of artists from the late 19th century to the present and demonstrates the imaginative ways in which they used print techniques. The potential of the woodcut was explored by Paul Gauguin and Edvard Munch, and the woodcut later became a major preoccupation of the German Expressionists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde and Max Beckmann; lithographed posters were a specialty of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec; Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró experimented with drypoint, etching, and lithography, among other techniques, in new and original ways; Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns exploited the painterly aspects of lithography and the commercial look of screenprint. The current generation of artists, among them Terry Winters and Kiki Smith, has gravitated to printed art as an essential aspect of their creative practice, with major bodies of work already produced.~Including more than 200 illustrations, this publication is organized as an unfolding historical narrative with a focus on individual artists, each with a succinct text describing his or her relationship to printmaking. Bibliographic references cite the latest scholarship in the field. An index of artists, printers, and publishers reflects the involvement of various partners in the printmaking enterprise. All works reproduced are from The Museum of Modern Art's extraordinary collection of over 50,000 prints, the finest of its kind in the world.With more than 200 prints by such modern masters as Hans Arp, Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, Georges Braque, Vija Celmins, Paul Cézanne, Chuck Close, Willem de Kooning, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, Marcel Duchamp, Helen Frankenthaler, Lucian Freud, Robert Gober, Natalia Goncharova, Peter Halley, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Edward Hopper, Vasily Kandinsky, Anish Kapoor, William Kentridge, Fernand Léger, Sol LeWitt, Elizabeth Murray, Bruce Nauman, Barnett Newman, Emily Nolde, Chris Ofili, Sigmar Polke, Martin Puryear, Robert Rauschenberg, Odilon Redon, Gerhard Richter, Dieter Roth, Susan Rothenberg, Kurt Schwitters, Shahzia Sikander, Kiki Smith, Frank Stella, Richard Tuttle and Kara WalkerEssay by Deborah Wye.Clothbound, 9.5 x 11 in./240 pgs / 275 color 20 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20148 ... Read more

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Paul GauguinImages from the South Seas

By Eckhard Hollmann

Paul Gauguin (1848 –1903) continues exert an extraordinary fascination through both his life and his works. This exciting study focuses on the years from the artist ’s first journey to Tahiti in 1891 to his death in the South Pacific in 1903. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Paul Gaugin: Images from the South Seas
I was very happy to receive this book on a timely basis.It is beautiful and in great condition.

thanks.

Couldn`t put it down
This survey of Gauguin's later work and career provided an excellent complement to Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence". The book provides the historical background to separate the facts from the rumors that circulated after his death. The excellent reproductions (all in color) are well chosen to complement the text and sequenced so that they are on or near the pages on which they are discussed. The book is an easy read and an excellent bargain for a hardbound book so well illustrated. ... Read more

Product Description
Paul Gauguin "painted and dreamed at the same time," yet he forecast much of what became basic to 20th-century art. A magnificent sampling of the artist's paintings is provided here, along with an absorbing introduction and commentaries by Robert Goldwater, a noted scholar on primitivism in art. ... Read more