Gauguin's challenge: new perspectives after postmodernism

Several decades have now passed since postcolonial and feminist critiques presented the art-historical world with a demythologized Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), a much-diminished image of the artist/hero who had once been universally admired as "the father of modernist primitivism." In this volume, both long-established and more recent Gauguin scholars offer a provocative picture of the evolution of Gauguin scholarship in the recent postmodern era, as they confront and consider how the dismantling of the longstanding Gauguin myth positions us now in the 21st century to deal with and assess the life, work, and legacy of this still perennially popular artist. To reassess the challenges that Gauguin faced in his own day as well as those that he continues to present to current and future scholarship, they explore the multiple contexts that influenced Gauguin's thought and behavior as well as his art and incorporate a variety of interdisciplinary approaches, from anthropology, philosophy, and the history of science to gender studies and the study of Pacific cultural history. Dealing with a wide range of Gauguin's production, they challenge conventional art-historical thinking, highlight transnational perspectives, and offer clues to the direction of future scholarship, as audiences worldwide seek to make multicultural peace with Gauguin and his art. Broude has raised the bar of Gauguin scholarship ever higher in this groundbreaking volume, which will be necessary reading for students and scholars of art history, late 19th-century French and Pacific culture, gender studies, and beyond

List of Plates List of Figures List of Abbreviations Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: Gauguin After Postmodernism <i>Norma Broude (American University, USA)</i> <b>Part I: Constructing Multiple Identities</b> 1. Gauguin's Alter Egos: Writing the Other and the Self <i>Linda Goddard (University of St Andrews, UK)</i> 2. Paul Gauguin's Self-Portraits in Polynesia: Androgyny and Ambivalence <i>Irina Stotland (Montgomery College, USA)</i> 3. Flora Tristan's Grandson: Reconsidering the Feminist Critique of Paul Gauguin <i>Norma Broude (American University, USA)</i> <b>Part II: Symbolism, Science, and Spirituality</b> 4. Gauguin and the Challenge of Ambiguity <i>Dario Gamboni (Universit de Genve, Switzerland)</i> 5. On Not Seeing Tahiti: Gauguin's <i>Noa Noa</i> and the Rhetoric of Blindness <i>Alastair Wright (University of Oxford, UK)</i> 6. Evolution and Desire in Gauguin's <i>Tahitian Eve</i> <i>Martha Lucy (The Barnes Foundation)</i> 7. Gauguin: Vitalist, Hypnotist <i>Barbara Larson (University of West Florida, USA)</i> 8. "All Men Could Be Buddhas": Paul Gauguin's Marquesan Diptych <i>June E. Hargrove (University of Maryland, College Park, USA)</i> <b>Part III: Reception: Resistance and Empowerment</b> 9. Taking Back Teha'amana: Feminist Interventions in Gauguin's Legacy <i>Elizabeth C. Childs (Washington University in St. Louis, USA)</i> 10. Re-Possessing Gauguin: Material Histories and the Contemporary Pacific <i>Heather Waldroup (Appalachian State University, USA)</i> Notes on Contributors Bibliography Index