Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguinwas a French post-Impressionist artist. Underappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and synthetist style that were distinctly different from Impressionism. His work was influential to the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Gauguin's art became popular after his death, partially from the efforts of art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who organized exhibitions of his work late in his career, as well as...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth7 June 1848
CityParis, France
CountryFrance
One's state of mind is three-quarters of what counts, so it has to be carefully nurtured if you want to do something great and lasting.
I am entering into the truth, into nature.
Do not finish your work too much. An impression is not sufficiently durable for its first freshness to survive a belated search for infinite detail; in this way you let the lava grow cool...
Follow the masters! But why should one follow them? The only reason they are masters is that they didn't follow anybody!
Lacking many of the essential implements, it irritated me to be reduced to impotence in the face of artistic projects to which I had passionately given myself.
Why did I hesitate to put all this glory of the sun on my canvas?
A critic is someone who meddles with something that is none of his business.
Happiness and work rose up together with the sun, radiant like it.
All the joys - animal and human - of a free life are mine. I have escaped everything that is artificial, conventional, customary.
Slyly, banteringly, but also overbearingly, the critic - the one who does not swallow anything whole, who waits until posterity has consecrated it before... howling - is among those who howl their admiration the way they howl their insults: don't be afraid, don't tremble - the beast doesn't have any nails or teeth, or even brain: it is stuffed...
Civilization is what makes you sick.
However depressed I may be I am not in the habit of giving up a project without having tried everything, even the 'impossible', to gain my end.
The landscape with its violent, pure colours dazzled and blinded me. I was always uncertain...
Do not copy nature. Art is an abstraction. Rather, bring your art forth by dreaming in front of her and think more of creation.