The Artist I chose is a French artist named Paul Gaugin, who was born in 1848 and passed away in 1903. He expressed himself through painting, printmaking, and sculpting. As mentioned in an article titled “Paul Gaugin French Painter” his main idea in art was to achieve a “primitive expression of spiritual and emotional states in his work. This work in 1892, two years after the modernism movement took place in visual arts. Gauguin participated in eight impressionist exhibitions by 1886, in which he showed 19 of his works. Gaugin made a term popular during his time titled: “Synthetism,” meaning formal ideas or emotions conveyed in his primitive art.
The Work I selected is titled “The Seed of the Areoi,” Painted in 1892, and shows women of what seems to be of indigenous background sitting down gracefully on a blue matted quilt with symbols laid all across its perimeters. The beautiful lady is completely nude with what appears to be some sort of flowers or beads on the right side of her face, sitting in an upfront manner, holding a sort of fruit in the palm of her hand. This fruit in her hand seems to be holding a healthy stem above it, which is still bright green, with the rest of her surroundings showing its vibrant colors with blue skies in the background and mountains of great dark color cascading behind the almost lime green tree tops. Beautiful pink flowers appear all behind this beautiful women. In the front of the painting, a tray of natural fruits can also be observed in the bottom right corner, showing seven different fruits potentially native to the land, with the eighth fruit seed being on the woman’s hand.
This work reflects the aesthetic preferences associated with modernism by painting the natural beauty of the world the way it was originally intended to be. This means painting a world untouched by the influences of modern man in deemed advanced societies. This rejects technological advancements and current values held by first-world countries and shines a light on a world that is beautiful, free, and unrestrained by society. You can see some symbolism in his work. Perhaps the woman holding the fresh fruit seed in her hand implies a deeper meaning potentially of a caregiving role or protecting figure. You can also see the natural fruits lying undisturbed on their serving plates, ready for consumption, probably implying the abundance of natural goods awaiting in this dreamy world of natural terrain. Also, it can be implied the beauty women could naturally hold when they free with nature.
As I was about to leave the Museum of Modern Art, I stumbled on the unknown section of the museum where I saw more paintings being displayed, and to the far end of the wall, I saw “The Seed of the Areoi” The colors were the first thing I noticed and upon closer inspection, I noticed the beautiful features of the woman, the flowers and seed the lady was holding in her hand I knew there would be a deep meaning to this painting due to how the piece was painted with bright color almost feeling dreamlike and unrealistic.
Marvin, Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this painting. I love Gaugin’s work. As you can imagine, these works were considered quite shocking when they were first exhibited because of the nudity and because they were such a dramatic departure from the kind of portraiture that was popular at the end of the 19th century. Later in the 20th century, Gaugin was sort of “canceled” by those who felt that he was a European who traveled to Polynesia and objectified and “exoticized” the women he painted there.