Gaugin

Paul Gauguin’s Le Grand Bouddha (The Idol), c. 1897: an analysis and interpretation.

By its subject matter and compositional elements Gauguin (1848-1903) expresses symbolically in The Grand Bouddha, painted during Gauguin’s second and final period in Tahiti, a mysterious, sensuous and exotic world, that, by its differences makes the viewer, corrupted by western civilization, rethink not only artistic practice but the way we look at the world and its people. Gauguin admired the virtues of less developed societies and used art from these “primitive” societies because its difference, its alternative look, force and creativity, challenged the viewer to make a connection or affinity with these “other” societies. The use Gauguin made of this “primitive” art was revolutionary and initiated a different approach that resulted in tribal art being recontextualized as not only of value in anthropological terms in natural history museums but as aesthetic works of art to be appre...