Whatever happened to those young girls? Are they even anybody... in the great scheme of artistic things?
To some, he is an artistic genius, the gifted post-Impressionist whose work inspired a generation of painters and sculptors including Picasso; to others he was a wife beater who became a despicable sex tourist, exploiting the Tahitian beauties he painted, before dying of syphilis and alcoholism....
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Whatever happened to those young girls? Are they even anybody... in the great scheme of artistic things?
Groucho Marx said,
"Women should be obscene and not heard".
No doubt Gauguin was living this adage before it was ever stated.
He was truly a pioneer.
Off to Qatar, where women dressed like them would be arrested. Perhaps someone can paint hijabs on them?
The sad (or funny thing) is that was painted by a 3rd grader in elementary school class.
I've always been more of a fan of John WIlliam Waterhouse myself. He painted this the same year Gauguin painted that piece.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Circe_Invidiosa_-_John_William_Waterhouse.jpg
I don't get art. Why one painting is better than another. I think part of that is that you have to know what the world of art looked like when the painting was made, which requires a lot of study. To me, I just see a painting whose style has been copied endless times until all originality is gone. But I don't have 300 million dollars either.
I tell my daughter that about the Beatles, you had to know what music was like before they came along to really understand the sound we all take for granted now.
I wonder though if the real issue is that there is no better place to park 300 million dollars right now.
That's about $299,999,850 too much.
They are not actual girls. They are composites.
Thus, no responsibility whatsoever.
The fact that someone thinks that it is worth $300 million factors into one's appreciation of the painting. I don't know art, but I know what I like. Still, it's hard to believe that it's worth even more than a first edition of a Superman comic book. People's values are so twisted nowadays.
"Here’s The Most Expensive Painting Ever Sold."
mainly because the really good ones don't get sold...
Nobody told me it was for sale.
Gauguin is one of those rare historical figures who comes out as big a bastard whether judged by today's standards, or the standards of his time.
David,
Are you implying that they are Obama's Hawaiian girlfriends?
Gauguin in Shorts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gauguin#mediaviewer/File:Gauguin_by_Mucha.jpg
CWJ said...
David,
Are you implying that they are Obama's Hawaiian girlfriends
No.
Did it come with an island estate to hang it in?
No.
OK then.
Who here if they come across this painting at a garage sale would later turn down $300,000,000 for it?
As for Gauguin, imagine what his reaction would be if he could be resurrected for a while just to find out about the $300,000,000
Van Gogh adored Gauguin, so I guess its fitting since the previous high was his.
The phrase "Conspicuous Consumption" is all that comes to mind when the price of this painting is under discussion.
"Whatever happened to those young girls? Are they even anybody... in the great scheme of artistic things?"
Gauguin's Tahiti was not a real place, it was a Rousseauian ideal in the artist's mind. Perhaps some women posed for him, but I'd assume the images have far more to do with the artist than with any actual Tahitian women.
This is everything I hate about mainstream art. It's not even a very good painting, but the artist is famous, so...BIDDING WAR!!!
I've had girlfriends who, if they found this above the bed in a hotel room, would drape a towel over it so they wouldn't have to look at it.
There's better artwork on the walls of any decent dive bar.
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