Paul Gauguin: Where Do we Come From? What Are We? Where Are we Going?

The life of Paul Gauguin (18481903) is one of the richest and most mythic in the history of Western art. Abandoning a career in banking, a family and his homeland, in the last decade of the nineteenth century he sailed from France to the South Seas to seek a life in ecstasy, in peace and for art. During his years in Tahiti, Gauguin brought forth a wealth of astonishing paintings, culminating in this monumental meditation on what he called the ever-present riddle of human existence posed in the works title. This compact introduction to Gauguins masterpiece explores its relation to European models as well as to the artists own companion pieces.