Under the Bamboo Tree
I ran upon this article at the London Review of Books. I was never a very big Gauguin fan and after reading this I almost have a completely different opinion of him.
"But you don’t have to look long at Gauguin’s work (a retrospective is at Tate Modern until 16 January) to realise that bliss is not the subject of his Tahitian pictures. Idols in the shadows announce a world explained by tales of frightening gods, spirits and ghosts."
I always had a rather simplistic view of his work and thought that it was about naked girls. I saw the colors, but never really took the time to LOOK at the paintings. I definitely have a whole nother respect for him and now as I look at his pieces I can see the eerie meaning that he meant to symbolize.
www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n20/peter-campbell/at-tate-modern