Gauguin: Metamorphoses at the Museum of Modern Art

What: Gauguin: Metamorphoses

Where: The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition Gallery 

Review by Pilar Bee, NYC

Gauguin: Metamorphoses at the Museum of Modern Art is a comprehensive 

exhibition. 

This exhibition focuses on Paul Gauguin’s rare and extraordinary prints and 

transfer drawings, and their relationship to his better-known paintings and his 

sculptures in wood and ceramic. Comprising approximately 150 works, including 

some 120 works on paper and a critical selection of some 30 related paintings 

and sculptures, it is the first exhibition to take an in-depth look at this overall body 

of work.

Created in several discrete bursts of activity from 1889 until his death in 1903, 

these remarkable works on paper reflect Gauguin’s experiments with a range 

of mediums, from radically “primitive” woodcuts that extend from the sculptural 

gouging of his carved wood reliefs, to jewel-like watercolor monotypes and 

large, mysterious transfer drawings. Gauguin’s creative process often involved 

repeating and recombining key motifs from one image to another, allowing them 

to evolve and metamorphose over time and across mediums. Printmaking, which 

by definition involves transferring and multiplying images, provided him with 

many new and fertile possibilities for transposing his imagery. Gauguin embraced 

the subtly textured surfaces, nuanced colors, and accidental markings that 

resulted from the unusual processes that he devised, for they projected a darkly 

mysterious and dreamlike vision of life in the South Pacific, where he spent most 

of the final 12 years of his life.

Though Gauguin is best known as a pioneer of modernist painting, this exhibition 

showcases a lesser-known but arguably even more innovative aspect of his 

practice.

The ceramics from Paris, 1886-1888, show the delicate and decisive touch of the 

artist’s hand. A wonderful example is “The Mango Tree”, 1894. 

“Women In the River”, 1893-94, is one of the many woodcuts that are 

featured. The woodcuts could be stand alone works of art – they are magnificent 

reliefs and carvings. Gauguin pulled mono prints from the woodcut, dark to light. 

One can see the contrast of light and darks in the various editions.

“Hail Mary”, a watercolor monotype that is ethereal. I always think of Gauguin 

as having a heavy impasto style, however his watercolor’s are delicate and 

translucent.

“Be In Love and You Will Be Happy” 1889, is painted lime wood. This I feel 

could be the title of the show. There is so much love and spirit in each work of 

art.

Although another relief it is very dimensional. Gauguin has the raw talent to make 

a 2-dimensional surface into a 3-dimensional experience. His creates a unique 

perspective with the spatial relationships of objects as they might appear to the 

eye.

And in closing, not to overlook the exquisite Gauguin oils – “Girl with a Fan”, 

1902, oil on canvas. This piece gives you a glimpse into Gauguin’s process. 

One can see where he rubbed out marks, kept imagery, and finally chose certain 

colors. This painting has a very minimal and contemporary feel even though the 

masterpiece was done more than one hundred years ago.

Bravo MOMA and Paul Gauguin!!