The Artist Gauguin

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Post-Impressionist artists were interested in the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly in his concept of the Ubermensch, a superman who would be capable through intense struggle of surmounting the lower forces that would limit his ability to achieve. and how the idea that man could evolve beyond his present capacities influenced the relationship of European man to previous cultures and to contemporary but less ?civilized? societies. It explores the ways in which Paul Gauguin applied the Ubermensch concept to his art and to his life and examines parallel motifs in the oeuvres of his contemporaries. It details his life from his birth 1848 through his initial career as a stockbroker and his influence by Impressionist art.

From the Paper:

"The most enigmatic of his self-portraits is one of his 1889 ones, his now familiar features reduced almost to a caricature. His powerful body, hawk-like nose, slanted eyes and high cheekbones give him the appearance of a Mongol conqueror, and the gorgeous reds and golds of the paints create an exotic atmosphere. Two apples dangle over his shoulder, and a sinuous serpent meanders across his chest. Over his head, a halo hovers. He is now a Magus, a powerful supernatural being with divine powers - the realization of the full potential of the ubermensch. Inasmuch as he will be dead in 1901, it may well be that his syphilis had progressed by 1889 to an extent that he was delusional. Certainly the ego and the violent personality that had been developing in Tahiti and later in Atuana reached their culmination in a belief in self that seems excessive, even for an artistic personality."

More papers on The Artist Gauguin:

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