Technique and Meaning in the Paintings of Paul Gauguin - Hardcover

Jirat-Wasiutynski, Vojtech; Newton Jr, H. Travers

9780521642903: Technique and Meaning in the Paintings of Paul Gauguin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521642906 ISBN 13: 9780521642903

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2000

Technique and Meaning in the Paintings of Paul Gauguin provides a new interpretation of Gauguin's art. Reconstructing the artist's changing painting techniques, Jirat-Wasiutynski and Newton demonstrate that Gauguin's technical choices were meaningful. Beginning in 1886, Gauguin produced monumental figure paintings using full-scale cartoons to prepare them in a manner similar to that of the Quattrocento fresco painters. In the following years, brushwork and impasto disappeared from his paintings, producing works that contemporaries described as "primitive" and "decorative." Indeed, the authors argue, Gauguin's abandonment of oil painting was deliberate and signaled a rejection of modern Western culture and society.

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Book Description:

Technique and Meaning in the Paintings of Paul Gauguin provides a new interpretation of Gauguin's art. Reconstructing the artist's changing painting techniques, Jirat-Wasiutynski and Newton demonstrate that Gauguin's technical choices were meaningful. Beginning in 1886, Gauguin produced monumental figure paintings using full-scale cartoons to prepare them in a manner In the following years, brushwork and impasto disappeared from his paintings, producing works that contemporaries described as "primitive" and "decorative". Indeed, the authors argue, Gauguin's abandonment of oil painting was deliberate and signaled a rejection of modern Western culture and society.

Review:

"This very scholarly and well-researched book traces Gauguin's development as an artist...Reproductions are detailed and beautiful." Choice

"[The authors] draw on the results of scientific study of Gauguin's canvases to show how the use of unorthodox techniques and materials can be linked with the 1primitivism' of earlier European and non-European arts, particularly with the bold painting of early Renaissance frescoes....Rich in ideas and methods that that should reinvigorate the study of late-nineteenth century art..." New York Review of Books

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