Appreciate Gauguin's masterpiece Where Are We From? Who Are We? Where are we going? 》

Gauguin: How sad and desperate is it to reflect on life so deeply?

-Appreciation of Gauguin's masterpiece Where Are We From? Who Are We? Where are we going? 》

Just as The Crow in the Rye is not Vincent Van Gogh's last work, where do we come from? Who Are We? Where are we going? This is not paul gauguin's last painting.

But this philosophy and the mysterious "Where did we come from? Who Are We? Where are we going? " But it is Gauguin's most famous masterpiece in his whole artistic career.

"Where are we from? Who Are We? Where are we going? " It is the largest oil painting created by Gauguin. It was created in the first half of 1898 with the size of 139. 1cm*374.6cm, and is now in the Boston Art Museum.

This huge oil painting is not only regarded as an unprecedented work of art by Gauguin himself, but also the best window to show the artist Gauguin's inner thoughts, spiritual world and artistic ideas, as well as his meditation and philosophical cognition of life itself.

Let's start with the background of this painting.

Gauguin exiled himself to Tahiti in the South Pacific for the second time in September, 1995, at the age of 47. At that time, Gauguin's situation was very pessimistic. His works were unsalable, poor, with broken ankles, heart disease, alcoholism and syphilis, which was very popular at that time.

An epoch-making artist lives in this situation. I wonder if Mr Gauguin regretted choosing to take the road of art at that time?

The blow of life continues.

At the end of 1896, Gauguin was abandoned by an indigenous woman who fell in love with him, and a daughter born with his other indigenous model and partner (Pahula, about 14 years old) died unfortunately soon.

However, at this time:

Is Gauguin's tragic fate over?

Has his time come?

Has his happy life begun?

-Unfortunately, it didn't.

There is no worst, only worse, nothing else, the fatal blow is coming again.

1897 65438+1October 19, Gauguin's favorite daughter Irene died of pneumonia at the age of 20. After he learned the news from his wife Mette in May, his whole life suddenly fell to the bottom, and his body and mind were hit to the point of collapse.

After half a year, he still couldn't extricate himself and couldn't see any hope of life, so Gauguin took arsenic on February 30 of the same year and tried to end his ill-fated career as an artist.

However, for a down-and-out but brilliant artist, especially an artist who has not yet created great iconic works, God refused to take him away, so Gauguin was saved.

It's like getting creative inspiration from a near-death experience, and finally getting guidance from God after enduring all kinds of tragic tests from God. Gauguin, who stood up again, was determined to draw a masterpiece, a masterpiece with the strongest visual feeling and the richest performance effect, a masterpiece in which the real world and the state of soul are unified and life and dreams are integrated.

After a period of rehabilitation and conditioning, Gauguin completed "Where Are We From? February, 1898. Who Are We? Where are we going? "Sketch and check paper design, but the whole work was not finally completed until the summer of the same year, and then it was sent to worrall, an art dealer in Paris, and exhibited in a gallery in worrall in autumn.

"Where are we from? Who Are We? Where are we going? Gauguin's creative process is very difficult and takes half a year. On the one hand, Gauguin's health deteriorated and many diseases needed treatment. Due to physical reasons, he couldn't write for a long time. On the other hand, because he didn't have the money to treat the disease, he had to do some paperwork, painting and copying in the local cadastral office in Papeete, so as to pay for the treatment, and he didn't have enough free time to create.

Although this masterpiece did not get enough recognition and reward at that time, it is also the common fate of many great works of art, which needs time to ferment and test before it can be finally confirmed. Sometimes years, sometimes decades, sometimes hundreds of thousands of years. Usually, many great artists die young in front of flowers, applause, honor and money, such as Van Gogh, and today's hero Gauguin.

Gauguin once declared, "Where do we come from?" Who Are We? Where are we going? This is an improvisation of his talent. He said that he had no draft, no model, and he painted this picture day and night. He completed this painting "in the face of the mystery of what our nature is and where we come from, in an erratic feeling of torture and pain".

Whether Gauguin exaggerates or not, this is a last resort, an artist's last resort, an artistic creation's last resort, and an artist's life and life's last resort.

Whether Gauguin exaggerates the packaging of this painting or not, it does not affect that it is a wonderful masterpiece, whether it is the theme of this painting, the style and skills of this painting, or the content and background of this painting.

Gauguin has a rebellious spirit, rebelling against the civilized world, against European society, against traditional art, against orthodox life and against the painting tradition that objectively reflects nature.

So Gauguin weaves his own artistic dream in a pretentious way alone, and pursues his own artistic thought simply and purely from the opposite direction of civilization.

The primacy, simplicity, symbolism, mystery and direct expression of personal subjective thoughts are all embodied in Gauguin's artistic creation.

The audience watched Where Are We From? Who Are We? Where are we going? The first feeling is strange, strange colors, strange people and scenery, strange lines and strange combination of the whole picture.

A large area of blue and green, dotted with a few browns and oranges, gives people a mysterious and strange feeling, and even makes people feel cold. Is this the true natural color, or the color in Gauguin's eyes and heart? Or both.

Close-up figures, animals, Buddha statues, trees, stones, etc. And distant forests, oceans, mountains and so on. Intricate and intertwined, full of abstraction, dazzling, it is difficult to distinguish between true and false.

Simple outlines, flat painting techniques, decorative lines and colors, primitive environment and primitive indigenous figures, and weird body movements, people, animals, gods and nature all blend into a fantastic scene.

In a word, the whole picture is quite different from the traditional western paintings we have seen before, as if there is no elegance and beauty at all, and these are the rebellion and mystery that Gauguin pursues. The picture strongly stimulates the eyes and nerves of the viewer, and then explores and understands the artist's creative ideas and concepts at a deeper level.

"Where are we from? Who Are We? Where are we going? From the name, we know that there are three themes to be expressed, three profound thoughts, three artists' review and summary of their short life and their exploration of life consciousness and significance, and three ultimate problems from the artist's individual "Tian Wen" to the universal community.

The three groups of characters represent children, young people and old people from right to left, and there is a small group at the lower left that emphasizes children, young people and old people. The arrangement of teenagers, young people and old people symbolizes the three processes of human beings from birth to death, corresponding to "where do we come from?" "Who are we?" And "Where are we going?" .

Three women and a sleeping child in the lower right corner symbolize the birth of mankind.

A young man picking fruit in the middle symbolizes the intermediate stage of human development.

There is an old man squatting on the lower left, holding his head and having silver hair, which symbolizes the end of life.

This is a typical symbolic three-stage expression, but there are other characters in the picture. Combining Gauguin's creative background at that time, we should be able to see Gauguin's own feelings and experiences, as well as his reflection on himself, his family and his life.

Look at the first figure in the painting: the sleeping child. This should be the author's own expression. He came into this world and fell asleep peacefully under the protection of "three women", that is, his family.

Then grow up, on the one hand, "picking fruit" should be self-reliant, on the other hand, it is necessary to support the family. The little girl eating fruit next to her represents the family, and two cats and one sheep represent the formed family.

There is a trio in the background a little further behind the fruit picking. "Two people in crimson clothes are exchanging views. A huge figure crouched unnaturally outside the perspective, raised his hand to the sky, and looked at the two people communicating there in surprise, surprised that they dared to think about their own destiny. "This should be Gauguin's thought in Tahiti in his later years. He lived naked like an aborigine and often thought about the civilized life in Europe (represented by two people in crimson clothes), which further questioned their thinking about their own destiny and symbolized Gauguin's thinking about his own destiny in another way.

Three people on the lower left form a group, a little girl, a young woman and an old man. A strange Bai Niao fell at her feet in front of the old man, and a lizard was caught by her claws, symbolizing death. Both the old man and Bai Niao symbolize death, while the young woman sits next to the old man and Bai Niao, which means that the young woman is facing death. I think this should represent Gauguin's own daughter. The daughter he raised finally grew up, but died. She should have grown into a silver-haired old man, but she didn't, so the young woman was close to death.

There is also a small scene behind, which is a Buddha statue holding two hands in the air mysteriously and strangely. Nearby, a young woman dressed in green is listening to the Buddha's complaint with her back to the Buddha. Here, the Buddha statue symbolizes mystery, the unknown and the loss of life. This young woman once again symbolizes Gauguin's daughter. Her daughter listened to the Buddhist language, with her back to the Buddha statue. Obviously, she didn't understand that young life entered the unknown prematurely and young life died prematurely.

In the indigenous environment of Tahiti where Gauguin lived at that time, he was far away from the noise and closer to the essence of human life; Coupled with Gauguin's worse physical condition and life blow, various factors eventually led Gauguin to think about life in a painful and abstract way; He used Tahiti materials at his fingertips, combined with his strongest thoughts on life, family and death, especially his daughter's life, and under an unconscious psychological effect, a super-visual painting came into being.

"Where are we from? Who Are We? Where are we going? Gauguin's picture is the concrete presentation of all Gauguin's emotions and cognition, and it is Gauguin's response to human beings and the world nature.

"Where are we from? Who Are We? Where are we going? Gauguin himself thinks this is the most important work in his life, which is why.

His artistic concept, creative style, inner thoughts and spiritual world, as well as the ultimate exploration of the nature and significance of his own and his daughter's life, mysteriously and painfully reflect on the mystery of human life and the essence of human existence, which makes the viewer involuntarily reflect.

Because "where are we from? Who Are We? Where are we going? It contains such profound philosophical thoughts and becomes a work of soul sublimation beyond art itself.

It's also because "Where are we from? Who Are We? Where are we going? "Make Gauguin immortal!