Gauguin vs. the Idol: The Loss of a Soul in Tahiti
Andrei Brasoveanu, Princeton Class of 2009“Farewell, hospitable land, land of delights, home of liberty and beauty! I am leaving, older by two years, but twenty years younger; more barbarian than when I arrived, and yet much wiser.” - Paul Gauguin, Noa Noa
This is a confession Gauguin made at the end of his first trip to Tahiti, in his intimate journal Noa Noa. Convinced that he had found paradise, he envisioned Tahiti as an escape from the civilized world and from the daily misery that he had encountered in France. He honestly felt that he would become wiser by finding the origins of mankind through a spiritual and physical return to primitivism. Yet this did not happen. Instead, by traveling to the Polynesian isles, he only managed to decline as a person, as he progressively lost any trace of civilization. The Tahitian culture that he embraced made him lose his individual self that had previously characterized him in the well-established French society and made him totally obedient to a new, impersonal way of thinking, which had the idol as a promoter. By analyzing several paintings and sculptures illustrating idols in various Tahitian scenes, we can see that Gauguin resigned by letting the overpowering image of the idol influence and finally take over his thinking. Even more dramatic, though, is that this devolution was only one sided. That is, Gauguin had no impact on the Tahitian culture, which remained the same after his personal tragedy. It only affected himself.
The Exhibit
Why Tahiti?
First Trip 1891-1893
Second Trip 1895-1901
Where Are We Going?
Nowhere...
Works Cited
About the Author
Forum
The Gallery
Noa Noa
The Idol...
The Real Tahiti
Gauguin: a Banana Tourist?
