Manao tupapau (Watched by the Spirit of the Dead) from Noa Noa by Paul Gauguin is an art piece in which a woman is laying down while an evil spirit creeps in the background. Paul Gauguin, the creator of this piece, was very talented in many aspects. Paul was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer. He was born on June 7th 1848 in Paris , France and was an important figure in the era of symbolist art. He produced over 516 art pieces and was sadly recognized for his great work after he passed away in 1903. Paul’s most notable piece of art was “WHERE DO WE COME FROM? WHAT ARE WE? WHERE ARE WE GOING?” right behind is “Watched by the Spirit of the Dead”. In the “Watched by the Spirit of the Dead ” Paul shows a woman on her stomach and someone in the background , Paul says that the woman laying down could either be imagining the figure or it could actually be there. His point was to come across as haunting and he very well did so. The canvas itself was produced in 1892 and uses many different kinds of colors to bring it together. The way it’s drawn with vibrant colors you have to really pay attention to the image or else you won’t understand what’s going on. That’s how I came across the art piece. When I first laid my eyes on it , I thought I saw a turkey from a fast glance but then I noticed it was a human body. I then saw the woman in the back and realized the woman before me on the bed was naked .All these different factors had me looking around the painting for other things I may have missed. I really enjoy the theme of horror and this painting was the closest to it , from the image to the actual background of the work it was something I genuinely found interesting. In my opinion the form of art used in this painting was surrealism . The painting’s bizarre scenery and dream-like background leads me to think that. It’s not something commonly found in paintings and for that i believe it’s surrealism. Furthermore while reading the painting’s description I was intrigued as to how the author came up with such an idea for an art work. Where did the inspiration for this come from ? Was it from another piece of art or an actual experience of his ?
I wish you had taken a picture of the work, so that we could see the vibrant colors! Gaugin’s work was considered very daring in his time, particularly because of his paintings of Polynesian women – which are so different from more conventional nudes. I like that you have found an element of horror or the supernatural in this work.