Gauguin: The Full Story

"Oh, I hate that man. He left his wife and children, was cruel to Van Gogh, and bedded down all those Tahitian girls. I just cannot look at his paintings." This is a simple-minded, uninformed, dull, and predictable comment that I have little patience or tolerance for. I have heard it countless times whenever I list Paul Gauguin among the painters I identify with aesthetically. Several films have been made about about Gauguin, yet none of them have caught his essence, at least until this documentary by Waldemar Januszczak. It is not a perfect film, but Gauguin is vividly present in it.Donald Sutherland starred as Gauguin in the 1986 film Oviri, directed by Henning Carlson. In that film, the banker Gauguin and his wife, Matte, are on a Sunday horse and carriage ride with his co-workers and their wives. The financiers engage in shop talk while Gauguin broods. Finally, the frustrated painter taps the carriage driver on the shoulder and tells him to stop. Gauguin looks at his wife and peers and says, "You are my jailers." With that, he jumps out of the carriage and walks off to find his paradise. A nice story but one that is a total fiction, buying into the painter's mythology.In actuality, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), contrary to the repeated myths, was not a millionaire banker. He was a successful stock broker. He did not quit his job. The stock market crashed and he lost his job. Gauguin, who had been a "Sunday" painter for years, felt that this was reason enough to pursue painting full time, something he had been longing to do. It was with this that his wife left him. Gauguin did not desert his wife and five children. His wife rejected him after he lost his income as a stockbroker.Art critic Waldemar Januszczak attempts to set the record straight. "What's to like about this man?," Januszczak asks. "First of all, there is the art, which needs no defense. Gauguin painted some of the world's most alluring woman and put them into several of the world's most gorgeous pictures, but what I really like about him is that he did it for big and noble reasons." And then, most aptly, he says, "There is always more to a Gauguin than meets the eye." Januszczak covers those "big and noble reasons," but falls a little short in the "more than meets the eye" comment (more on that later).Januszczak follows Gauguin's travels. "Take it from me that he had guts by the barrel-load and with the life he lead, he needed them." Januszczak takes the viewer through Gauguin's early history: the premature death of his father, the strict Catholic upbringing in a boarding school as Gauguin was prepped for the priesthood. Gauguin was having none of it and, of course, he was on his way to his own brand of vocation; but first, he ran off to sail the seven seas.After a seven year stint in the navy, the twenty-three year old Gauguin landed a job in the French Stock Exchange through the assistance of his late mother's lover. Gauguin remained in that position for eleven years. During that time, he met and hurriedly married Matte. "This was a tough woman. She smoked cigars, loved dancing and parties, expensive dresses. She thought she was marrying an up and coming financial wiz kid. What she didn't know was that her Gauguin had a terrible secret. He had got interested in art!"Most fatefully, Gauguin met numerous painters, including Pissarro and Cezanne. For Matte, this would prove to be a Pandora's box. Gauguin's great granddaughter, Mette, expands on this: "I don't think she had any idea of his passion for art. She saw it as an interesting hobby that kept him out of the bars. It was a safe hobby for a man to have. But that began to change. And she said to my grandfather that she really had no idea that this was in him. It was really quite a shock to her. I don't think she had any real interest in art."With the recession, "Matte was reluctant to cut back on her maids. Gauguin was reluctant to cut back on his art." Their posh house had to be sold, and the family bought a less expensive home where Gauguin had his first studio. Januszczak wanted to take his cameras in there but, "Nuns don't like to let Gauguin through the door. They shouldn't have worried. Gauguin's painting here are among his most lyrical, including his paintings of the church."During this time, Gauguin wrote his occupation down as "artist" on his fifth child's birth certificate. "It was hard on Matte. She was so fond of elegant dresses and parties. She wasn't interested in poverty. This was not what she married Gauguin for. When her uncle turned up on a boat bound for Denmark, she got on it. She did not consult Gauguin. He cashed in his life insurance early and followed her." It was a humiliating six months in Denmark.A job as a waterproofing salesman in Copenhagen was disastrous. Gauguin hated Danish businessmen, and they hated him. Through political connections, Matte got a job with the conservative Prime Minister giving French lessons to diplomats while "Gauguin, the embarrassing bohemian she brought back from Paris, was banished, out of sight, to the attic. In this little room Gauguin painted his first self-portrait." Matte was constantly embarrassed by her husband, his opposing political views, the way he dressed, his lack of income. She and her family ganged up on him and threw him out. This happened in 1885, and it is the true beginning of Gauguin's life as an artist.Back in Paris, Gauguin took up pottery. His first works in this medium harked back to primitive imagery and unbridled sexuality. There is little doubt that Gauguin, deemed a penniless vagabond, felt impotent. Belittled in the eyes of his wife, erotic pottery was Gauguin's response.In 1887, Gauguin, with the painter Emile Bernard, spent time painting in the artist colony of Pont-Aven. At first, Gauguin made his bed with the Impressionists, but he found the movement too stifling. The artist found his own voice and, posthumously, he came to be seen as one of the fathers of the Symbolist school, of cloisonnism, and of Synthetism. Gauguin also became fascinated with Theosophy, a kind of philosophical blend of various religions and cultures. Mystical symbology, Japanese art and primitivism came to have much impact upon his work.Along with fellow painter Charles Laval, Gauguin spent some time in Panama, even working briefly on the Panama Canal. He was fired, but he also contracted malaria from his stint there, and it would remain a health impediment throughout his life. In Martinique, Gauguin wrote a naughty latter to Matte (who he never saw again after 1891) in which he describes an encounter with a woman and a fruit. "Is it true?" asks Januszczak. "I don't think so. It's too much like the story of what Eve did to Adam. Whether it happened or not, fruit as the symbol of desire began appearing in his paintings." This is one of the few concessions Januszczak makes to Gauguin's use of symbolism. The filmmaker does not delve too deeply into that "more than meets the eye" symbology. Quasi-religious metaphors and primitive desires become an obsession with Gauguin, who readily identified with the outcast.Gauguin's work in Pont-Aven, Brittany, and Arles are more self-assured in composition and more exploratory than his later Tahitian paintings of "alluring women." His "Self-Portrait With Halo" (depicting himself both as Lucifer and as a saint), as "Christ In The Garden of Olives," his "Vision After The Sermon," "Yellow Christ" (which fuses elements of Buddhism with orthodox Christianity), and "Self-Portrait with Yellow Christ" are among his most startling, arrogant, and masterful canvases. Gauguin's ludicrous, self-pitying empathy with the betrayed Christ (painted after a woman he loved ran off with Laval) was "an unlikely route to great work."Of course, the nine weeks Gauguin spent with Van Gogh in Arles (1888) resulted in Van Gogh's infamous lopping of of his ear lobe. The collaboration between Van Gogh and Gauguin was doomed from the start. Each artist had found his own (very different) path before their stay at the Yellow House. Regardless, they respected each other's work, and Gauguin inherited from Van Gogh an admirable "Greed for Yellow." Gauguin, like Van Gogh, suffered much from depression and had suicidal tendencies.After his later, famous Gospel canvas "Where Do We Come from? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" (`A Buddhist message refracted through a Christian prism' about the cycle of life), Gauguin, like Van Gogh, also attempted suicide (he failed, only getting sick from the arsenic he consumed). The reason for this attempt (which, oddly, Januszczak does not discuss) is that Gauguin's daughter Aline had died unexpectedly. Gauguin's remorse and sense of guilt overwhelmed him. There is a single recorded memory of Gauguin's public admission of failure. A friend recalled "he burst into tears and sobbed, I let down my family and he ran out of the cafe."Of course, Gauguin's sojourn to Tahiti sealed his fame and he went there twice, never actually finding his much sought after Eden. Gauguin's affairs with underage native girls is used as evidence of his hedonism, but as Januszczak explains, "Gauguin had been faithful to Matte for sixteen years before he gave into temptation." Incredulously, some art historians even want to hold his mix of Christian imagery with native figures as proof of inherent racism within Gauguin. This is an absurdly Politically Correct assumption. Such critics fail to mention that Gauguin also employed Buddhist, Hindu, Judaic, Pagan and even literary imagery (Edgar Alan Poe) into those same canvases.Gauguin himself exaggerated his hedonism, claiming that one lover was thirteen when she was, in fact, fifteen. Today, either seems shocking, but we are looking at the situation through twenty-first century filters. It was much more accepted in years past; my own parents were married at the age of fifteen. It was not that uncommon.Gauguin sought to escape the phoniness of a bourgeoisie society which had deemed him a failure. Tahiti was, he thought, his Lost Horizon, but he found the influences of Christian missionaries had infected the culture there. He was, yet again (at least psychologically) exiled. Januszczak gives an amusing anecdote regarding Gauguin's frequent clashes with Church clergy. A bishop had riled him and Gauguin responded, in clay, by making the bishop into a horned devil. "The bishop was not amused."Gauguin's mid-life crisis gave way to serial affairs and eventually resulted in syphilis. Ravaged with the disease and destitute, Gauguin, worked as journalist in Tahiti. He took sides with the natives against the French colonists, was fined, and sentenced to three months in prison for "libeling" the governor. As he was appealing his sentence, on May 8th, 1903, Gauguin took a large amount of morphine and died of a syphilitic heart attack (or, as some have claimed, a suicide).His last few paintings are among his most sublime images, anonymous male figures on white horses, riding into the shore line. Predictably, Gauguin became a huge success after his death and was a major influence on Picasso (a whole book could be written about that). Despite a few quibbles, Januszczak's film is superb and an essential way to get to know the greatest painter since El Greco. It is an apt and overdue tribute for which Januszczak deserves considerable credit and gratitude.Still, I cannot help but think back to a few years ago when the Indianapolis Museum of Art spent untold millions to purchase and exhibit a large collection of Gauguin's Pont-Aven works. A life-size puppet of Gauguin greeted children at the festive grand opening. Contrast this with Paul Gauguin himself, dying penniless, in the middle of the night, in the mud, in a hut, in agony, alone except for the company of his dog named Penis and never knowing if anyone really gave a damn whether he painted or not.And Paul Gauguin was an immoralist?*my review originally appeared at 366 weird movies.

Until I saw this DVD, I "judged" Gauguin (the man) by the myths circulating around him. Yet, few artists' work pierce my psyche more than his does. Why so? Perhaps the secret is his mixture of the sexual and the sacred. The purpose of this documentary is not only to celebrate Gauguin's genius..but to set the record straight. Consider one point. Most commentators remark that the artist abandoned his wife; this documentary explains that the wife's conventional family abandoned him and kicked him out...and so he left.I never quite grasped the fact that Gauguin's world view was not French...but Peruvian. He also traveled the world more than any of the other French artists of his time - from Panama to Brazil to Brittany to Copenhagen to Provence to Martinique and of course Tahiti. After learning this, I formed two opinions. First, that his attraction to primitive or exotic art may have been influenced by his childhood upbringing. Second, that just about all of Gauguin's art suggests the autobiography of an uncomfortable soul; it reflects a man displaced - whether it is a sculpture of a faun (half man - half beast) or the "Yellow Christ" where the savior is surrounded by maids of Brittany.This movie goes the distance and travels to each and every location that Gauguin lived - we see the actual sites which influenced his work; as just one example, Gauguin's mother had a fetish for pre-Columbian pottery. That was unusual in her day. It is no surprise, then, that Gauguin himself tried pottery as an art form and he may have been profoundly influenced by the primitive visions that his mother treasured.I truly learned a great deal from this documentary and have no reservations about recommending it. Bottom line, Gauguin's visual vocabulary - mixing from one culture to the next - is his own.

It's Waldemar so that immediately translates to awesomeness and a must have. We haven't watched it yet, but I am sure will soon. If you have Prime, or the Acorn app on firetv, then watch all Waldemar videos. You will become more educated, laugh a lot, and want to find more things he has done. We hear he is filming here in America on American art. Of course we will have to wait until BBC allows the colonies to view it, but I am sure it is going to be another must watch Waldemar art trip. I discovered Waldemar on Prime while recovering from breast cancer. I did not always want to read, and didn't want to become brain mush while lying around. He was just what the doctor ordered!!! We here are convinced the man is a genius mixed with a dash of comedic sarcasm which ends up as sublime joy!!!! Hope to run into him someday to get the kid's books autographed by him!!! Once I watched him on Prime I began trying to find books he had written, or was associated with. Kids are YUGE readers and over the moon regarding the books. Hope the BBC keeps allowing him to be Waldemar, and churning out whatever he wants. We here in the colonies think he is the art bomb!!!

it is a great documentary. a story told so well and everything is just interesting. I loved the energy and the tone of the presenter that kept me hooked without losing interest. The story felt so relatable as if I lived in the moment. it was just refreshing to watch especially if one has a true love for art. Watching someone else's life story being told and presented this way makes you wish they lived to see it. It is also an inspiration to many that they must live a life that will live people with great stories to tell. I doubt that Gaugiun knew that even today his story will continue to be told. I hope someone who watches this documentary remembers that even if you feel like you are not making a difference, you are! Now be intentional about making a difference even if no one recognize it. It's a pity that people only start appreciating and being proud of us once we are dead and not while we are still alive. :)

You can't really understand an artist's work without knowing about he artist. Januszczak does an excellent job in telling Guaguin life story. He takes the viewer to all the places that Gauguin lived which helps the viewer to understand the influence of setting and people in his works. Although Gauguin personal life is generally portrayed in a negative way in most art history books, Januszczak doesn't apologise for it, but through his research, tries to tell the story behind the story, such as often told story of Guaguin abandoning his wife and children for a bohemian artist life. The back story to the often told story is what makes Guaguin come alive.Anyone who has taken art history classes knows that many instructors teach it "like history", in other word; picture - artist name - date move to the next slide. Januszczak is the antithesis to this kind of teaching, he breathes life into the subject. I found this video not only informative but entertaining also.

This BBC presentation attracted me because I am a Gauguin lover from way back. Most recently I visited the big Tate Modern exhibition in London, and I have a substantial collection of books and monographs on the painter. Even so, this film surprised me with its freshness and insights. It confounds the notion that Gauguin was a heartless artist who deserted his bourgeois wife and family to paint --and sleep with--lovely young Tahitian girls. The film takes on the painter`s whole life, including his South American childhood, his activity as a stockbroker! and his turning to art in midlife. It chronicles his rather sad end, and offers the conclusion (indisputable) that this was a great artist and a very courageous man. The narrative is witty and brilliant, on location shots abound and are extremely helpful; there are some useful interviews. A real treasure this one! Thank you, Mr. Januszczak!

Really enjoyed the true story of his life!

okay

Funny and informative, with good visuals and strong narration. A very good video