Paul Gauguin in dialogue with postcolonial debates

In Paul Gauguin - Why Are You Angry? starting on March 26, the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin will be showing works by the artist that were created on the South Sea island of Tahiti. The exhibition will examine these works, which were influenced by Western, colonial notions of »exoticism« and »eroticism,« against the backdrop of current discourses on postcolonialism. The myth of the »wild artist« created by Gauguin himself is put up for discussion. In addition, the exhibition confronts his works with positions of contemporary artists. These include Angela Tiatia (New Zealand/Australia), Yuki Kihara (Samoa/Japan), and Nashashibi/Skaer (United Kingdom), as well as Tahitian activist and artist Henri Hiro (French Polynesia). The exhibition was realized by the Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, in cooperation with and based on the concept of Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen and made possible by the Friends of the Nationalgalerie. It will be presented until July 10, 2022.

French painter Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) is considered an influential pioneer of Expressionism and artistic modernism. In 1891 he left Paris and moved to French Polynesia, where he resided with an interruption until his death in 1903. It was during this time on the South Sea island of Tahiti that he produced his most famous paintings. These include Tahitian Fisherwomen (1891), one of Gauguin's major works in the collection of the National Gallery.