Gauguin Portraits: National Gallery: January 2010: 6/10
There are a few excellent paintings in this exhibition but many more that are no more than so-so. There is an introductory film in which we learn that Gauguin’s wife left him and that he went to Tahiti in search of purity. The wall plaques don't gloss things over in such an outrageous way and hint at what a horrible person he was, how he pushed poor old Van Gogh over the edge, how he abandoned his wife and in Tahiti had sexual relations with 13 year-olds. Gauguin was a prototypical sex tourist. Even the captions/handy-guide don’t explain the nature of his bouts of illness which lead to his early death, he was also a wife-beater. This man, who shouldn’t really be exhibited anymore, took syphilis with him to Tahiti. I should say that as well as his supreme dodginess it's rather a pricy show and not that big! These were my three favourite paintings: The introductory film suggested that this was a work of genius. If your child did this you wo...
