Review: Gauguin 'Maker Of Myth'

Gauguin ‘Maker Of Myth’ Tate Modern Review

Tate Modern presents the largest exhibition of the work of French Post Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin, mounted in Britain for over 50 years. ArtLyst was at the press launch of this blockbuster and found it vibrant, alive and still some of the best quality painting of the last two centuries. It looks as fresh as the day it was painted,with unusual compositional cropping and a palate to die for. Gauguin painted a staggering array of Landscapes, still life and figurative works. He is perhaps best known for his exotic and sometimes erotic Tahitian series, depicting the female form. The Artist famously spent much of the latter part of his life in Polynesia, the source of his famous and familiar Tahitian images. Gauguin was a storyteller; he reveals his narrative urge to create pictorial stories. Organizers say they have come up with a "fresh and compelling" look at this master of modern art, concentrating on his approach to storytelling and how myths and fables were central to his work.
Nicholas Serota the director of Tate Modern said,” Gauguin is an artist who created his own persona and established his own myth as to what kind of a man he was”
The first room of the exhibition examines how Gauguin created his persona with several self-portraits, which range from the artist as bohemian to corsair to what looks like a hospital patient  contemplating death. Next are room after room of paintings inter- dispersed with objects woodcarvings, letters and documents covering his short but brilliant career. This is definitely the must see show of 2010. Book now to avoid disappointment.The show runs from September 30-January 16 at Tate Modern before transferring to the National Gallery of Art in Washington from February.