Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at the life and art of Paul Gauguin. It brought together the author of a recent biography, Sue Prideaux, with Mette Gauguin, the artist’s great granddaughter chaired by Michael Prodger, associate editor of the New Statesman. Both had sought to place Gauguin as a man of his time rather than judging him by contemporary standards. They talked us through his life and I learnt that he gone to the Americas to help build the Panama Canal but it went bust before he got there!

Small gem of an exhibition at Ordovas bringing together a Gauguin landscapes with contemporary works. The Gauguin was a lovely early work of a beautifully framed farmyard which was then shown with two works by Peter Doig and two by Mamma Andersson. It was interesting to not only look at the contrast in style but also the different approaches from different countries. Not to be cliched but the large Doig was big and bold like the American landscape whereas the Swedish Andersson’s work had a Scandi melancholy to it This gallery specialise in small shows that present you with an idea and leave you to contemplate it. Closed 26 April 2024  

Fascinating exhibition at the National Gallery looking at portraits painted by Gauguin. I loved the leaflet that went with this show as it was very honest about Gauguin's life and I got the impression that, like me, the author liked the art but loathed the man. The opening line in the introduction to room 1 was “Gauguin was undoubtedly self-obsessed”. OK this was the room of self-portraits but the comment set the tone. In my notes in the leaflet I had already written “Can I slap him” on picture number 4! All the way through I kept reading things which just made me loath him more. He was commissioned to paint a portrait of a Breton aristocrat’s daughter but he painted her with one of his own sculptures of a menstruating woman to represent her transition to womanhood. Needless to say the aristocrat refused to pay for it. Also the fact that in later life he called his studio in Polynesia “The House of Pleasure” and was by this time suffering from syphilis. There ...

Tiny gem of an exhibition at Ordovas looking at the primitive in Gaugin’s work both in Tahiti and Brittany. This was quite a large stark white space with four jewel like Gaugin’s in it! My favourite was a stunning portrait of a young Tahitian boy.   I am not a great Gaugin fan but this had a slightly Renaissance quality. It was also good to see a sculpture included as I find his Tahitian sculpture more interesting that the painting. There was also a fascinating film on Gaugin in his own words playing. However it was slightly long and was being shown in a elegant office space. I must admit I felt odd standing next to three people who were working while watching it but I was pleased to see it’s on the website so I will watch it in full there.

Slightly thin exhibition at the Courtauld looking at their collection of Gauguin’s and how they were acquired by Samuel Courtauld. It was nice that the galleries own pictures and the two Gauguin’s that Samuel Courtauld had sold before he donated the rest to the gallery were reunited so you are seeing the whole of his collection. It was interesting to see that this collection had included paintings, sculpture and engravings and that the works were displayed alongside the bills for the works and letters relating to them. However that was it. There wasn’t quite enough of anything to give it much depth. Showing my bias I do wonder if this is because there is not much depth to Gaugin’s work. I’ve never really warmed to him and do fear that he found a market and played to it. Reviews Telegraph