Pablo Picasso was a misogynist. Claude Monet brought his mistress home several times while his wife was dying of cancer. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was a murderer.
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) exploited Polynesian culture, perpetuating harmful stereotypes among his French audience. He also was a ‘sex tourist’, preying on Polynesian girls as young as 13 years old. So when the National Gallery of Australia decided to hold an exhibition called ‘Gauguin’s World: TŌNA IHO, TŌNA AO’, one can’t help but raise an eyebrow at why we are celebrating such a problematic artist.
The 1892 painting, ‘Manao Tupapau (Spirit of the Dead Watching)’ depicts a Tahitian girl called Teha’amana lying on her stomach, nude, with her head facing us, and directly looking at the viewer that’s looking at her. Gauguin attempts to represent the Polynesian fear of the Tupapau, the ‘spirit of the dead’, that looms over her. However, given his sexual predilections and the probability that Teha’amana was Christian and did not believe in these spirits, the self-mythologising essence of Gaugin’s oeuvre is to be questioned. Is Teha’amana fearing the ghost, or is she fearing the man before her — her husband Gauguin?
Teha’amana was Gauguin’s first muse after setting sail for French Polynesia, in a search for an untouched land. As he put it, he was escaping “everything that is artificial and conventional,” in reference to the Western art world. She was around 13 years old when she met Gauguin according to Noa Noa (1993-94), his partly autobiographical, partly fantasised journal about his experiences in Tahiti, in hopes of depicting the idyll of the Polynesian Pacific life. She became what was commonly known in French Polynesia as his ‘native wife’, meaning a legally non-binding marriage typically between a French man and a Polynesian woman — or in this case, a girl.
Much of Teha’amana’s story is told through Gauguin’s exaggerated perspective from his journal Noa Noa. He described his relationship with Teha’amana as “youth and old age, light and darkness, and life and death.” The age of consent in Tahiti at the time was 13 years old, and many young girls would become ‘native wifes’ to Western men as they provided opportunities for wealth. In other words, marriage to native women was exploitation disguised as a chance for fortune.
Gauguin was a French post-impressionist, most known for his liberal and non-representational uses of colour. But as Amelia Hill in The Guardian wrote “[he had] falsely cast himself as a creature of exotic sexuality, a defender of women’s rights and a bastion of socialist ideas.” Not only did Gauguin have extensive self-aggrandisement depicting himself as the Christ, he raped many child brides, infected them with syphilis, and assaulted them.
Gauguin has always been controversial, but for what reason? Was it his liberal use of colour? Or his daring departure from the Western art world? It has only been in recent years where we have consistently labelled him with his sexual misconduct as “Gauguin the monster.” He was responsible for the characterisation of Polynesia as a submissive culture, an exotic realm of sensuality, and alluring women — a characterisation that will leave an impression on the rest of the world for over 100 years to come.
Gauguin writes in a letter to his wife Mette while overseas, referring to his work Manao Tupapau:
“I painted a nude of a young girl. In this position she is on the verge of being indecent. But I want it that way: the lines and movement are interesting to me. And so, I give her, in depicting the head, a bit of a fright. It is necessary to justify this fright if not to explain it because it is in the character of a Maori person… One of our own young girls [in Europe] would be frightened to be caught in this position. (The women here would not.)”
His exoticised and animalistic perception of Pacific women are detailed in another letter he wrote to Mette:
“like she-cats, she bites when in heat and claws as if coition were painful. She asks to be raped.”
There is a sense of detachment in his words, an unnerving separation of himself from his Tahitian muse. Polynesian girls are for sexual encounters, emphasising their ‘otherness’ by comparison with European girls.
The NGA is aware of the cavity in the art world that is the inherently celebratory nature of exhibitions dedicated to problematic artists. To combat this, they placed Polynesian voices at the forefront of the exhibition. The exhibition features a podcast hosted by Sosefina Fuamoli, a Samoan music journalist with guests such as Maori artist Angelea Tiatia and Gauguin expert Elizabeth C. Childs. The podcast is called ‘The Gauguin Dilemma’, and it discusses lenses we should and shouldn’t see Gauguin through, yet it almost leans into dismissing the true nature of his misconduct and buries his actions in context of Tahiti’s ‘age of consent laws’ and the normalisation of native wifes.
A transcript excerpt from the podcast with Gauguin expert Elizabeth C. Childs and producer Marcus Costello:
Elizabeth C. Childs: “Are you going to damn the artist for their personal life? Now, we can pretend it didn’t happen, or we can try and separate out the personal life from the art. And I do think we need to point out that there are many, many figures in the art historical canon who live some pretty tacky lives… I think the fundamental question is, are you going to align the life and the work [of the artist] and say that one has to be admirable for the other to even begin to be addressed?”
Marcus Costello: “Can I ask you that question?”
Elizabeth C. Childs: “I don’t think hiding the work is a solution.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who unveiled ‘Gauguin’s World’ echoed this sentiment, stating,“I am an opponent of cancel culture”.
The NGA uses Gauguin to highlight the Polynesian exhibition ‘SaVāge K’lub,’ held alongside ‘Gauguin’s World,’ but begs the question if the works are being overshadowed by Gauguin’s presence. Is the NGA subconsciously perpetuating the idea that they need Gauguin for a gallery audience to view authentic Polynesian culture and art?
To this day, Tahitians seek economical benefits from Gauguin’s exploitation of their culture in the form of tourism drawcards. From the Gauguin museum in Tahiti to the Paul Gauguin Cruise, a luxury cruise brand, Tahitians use Gauguin’s exploitation to their benefit. But at what cost? Although helping the Polynesian economy, Paul Gauguin cruises are not owned by Polynesians but ironically enough, a French company called ‘Compagnie du Ponant.’
My French Art tutor experienced the exhibition in person. When I asked her what she thought of how Gauguin was dealt with, she said: “I think they could’ve done more”.
So what more could the NGA have done and what should we do with these sorts of artists in future exhibitions?
It’s hard to compensate for the long-lasting impacts that French colonialism has had on Tahiti and its surrounding islands with a single exhibition, but if I had to exhibit it, I would emphasise in all aspects of his paintings the confrontation, sinisterism and exploitation.
Sasha Grishin in The Conversation addresses the ethics of this exhibition stating: “I do not know the answer to this question, but feel uncomfortable in an atmosphere where so much dismay is expressed concerning domestic violence in Australia to be simultaneously celebrating an artist for whom violence against women was part of his everyday life”.
The art cannot be separated from its gruelling context, especially Gauguin’s work, one whose context is intertwined with its subject matter. Within the past few years, the accountability we hold to artists has changed rapidly due to the emergence of ‘cancel culture’. Yet, hiding these works is not a solution. In a moment in culture and art where resources could be distributed to help contemporary problems, Gaugin’s predatory behaviour and exploitation has been lumped into the description of his story as “nuanced”. As such, Gaugin’s Exhibition remains a missed opportunity at better handling this contentious subject matter, in a manner that comprehensively yet carefully engages with all aspects of Gaugin’s life and art.
The National Gallery of Australia is currently hosting their Gauguin exhibition, Gauguin’s World: TŌNA IHO, TŌNA AO until October 7.
