A steep decline in hits over the last few days, so I will try to post more frequently and improve the quality of insight – latter may be difficult, however.
Gauguin
Finally got to see the Gauguin on Saturday; well, to glimpse the paintings through chinks in a mass of human backs. In some ways, this was productive, in that you see the paintings as abstract colours and shapes first and some, particularly the landscapes, work very well in that respect. There are 11 rooms, but I took no great notice of which paintings were in each, so these will be random observations (some might say, “as usual”).
Dominating one of the rooms – Sacred Themes, probably – is “Jacob wrestling with the Angel”, with that red; it’s culinary, like a hot pepper stew, against the cold milk – white of the women’s caps. I think the painting, from the NG of Scotland (see Blackpaint 140), actually dominates the exhibition.
In an earlier room, there is “the Ham”, with a less fiery orange backdrop – from a distance, it looked to me like a Picasso, a cow’s skull, maybe. In the same room, a red tablecloth with a little black idol – he pops up repeatedly elsewhere – and several interiors with Cezanne-ish fruit. There is a child sleeping, with a large, ornate tankard and several obscure, feathery objects floating surreally round her. BUT – there are also the awful dogs, drinking from a bowl of milk.
Some of the drawings are very pleasing, the finest being the oddly titled “In the Heat Pigs”(?); a coloured rear view of a peasant woman naked to the waist, doing something, feeding pigs perhaps, that I couldn’t make out, many other views of clothed backs intervening. I thought his line was reminiscent of Degas.
The landscape room has the most abstract “feel”; flat planes and plaques of vivid colour, sometimes outlined in black. Also, to my surprise, several instances of trees and shrubs done in thin, diagonal brush thrusts in tawny and flame colours. Flatness is the most noticeable quality. In this room, I believe, is “The Loss of Virginity”; a naked girl lies in a field, a fox at her side, a flower between her fingers – difficult symbolism, this – whilst in the distance, a mob of villagers approach to see what is to be seen.
Back to the “sacred” room – a Tahitian angel with green wings, a lemon-green Christ on the cross with Breton Marys at the base. These reminded me, rightly or wrongly, of Chagall. “The Invocation” – that acid green again, with a mauve-magenta-purple ground and again in “Two Women”, which looks like a lesbian fantasy on the artist’s part, with a large, odd dog (fox?) looking on as the women touch and Gauguin, one presumes, approaching in the background.
“Ondine” shows a swimming woman, rendered in a horrible, chalky but sharp blue-green and “The Bathers” has a Garden of Eden appearance, with animals at rest and some tall, vertical plants, maybe creepers (I’m sure there is a particular “Eden” I’ve seen that I have at the back of my mind – but that is where it stays, for now).
Finally, a picture in which the more “sculpted” figure, deeper relief and general depth of background differentiate it from the others – “Tehamana has many Parents” – the Tahitian girl in the black and white striped dress.
Predominant colours: Pink, that sharp green, that mauve-magenta-violet-purple amalgam, purple-ish brown. I noticed that the colours in some of the repros on sale were an improvement on the originals.
Two images that have stuck in my mind this week
Gerard David, “Christ being Nailed to the Cross”, the only painting I have seen where the cross, with Christ on it, is lying on the ground;
and Michelangelo, the Doni Tondo, in which the right arm of Mary, touching Christ, looks massive and elongated compared to the left (which is closer to the viewer).
Final Broke line Tide
Blackpaint
18.10.10
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