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As I wanted to suggest a luxuriant and untamed type of nature, a tropical sun that sets aglow everything around it, I was obliged to give my figures a suitable setting. It is indeed the outdoor life - yet intimate at the same time, in the thickets and the shady streams, these women whispering in an immense palace decorated by nature itself, with all the riches that Tahiti has to offer. This is the reason behind all these fabulous colors, this subdued and silent glow. 'But none of this exists!' 'Oh yes it does, as an equivalent of the grandeur, the depth, the mystery of Tahiti, when you have to express it on a canvas measuring only one square meter.' Very subtle, very knowing in her naivete is the Tahitian Eve. The riddle hiding in the depth of her childlike eyes is still incommunicable to me.

Paul Gauguin#19

ArtNatureExpressionSymbolismMysteryRepresentation

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About this quote

What does it mean?
Gauguin explains how he used symbolism to represent the mystery and grandeur of Tahiti.
In plain terms
I used special colors and settings to show the magic of Tahiti since the real place is too big for a canvas.
What can you take from it?
Use symbolism and art to capture experiences larger than life.

Where it applies

  • artistic creation
  • travel writing
  • storytelling

Putting it to work

  • paint memories
  • use color symbolically
  • create atmosphere

Questions to consider

  • How do you capture a feeling in art?
  • What is uncommunicable to you?

Another view

Symbolic art might not convey the actual experience to those unfamiliar with it.

More from Paul Gauguin

  1. A time will come when people will think I am a myth, or rather something the newspapers have made up.

    Permalink to quote #18

  2. My eyes close and uncomprehendingly see the dream in the infinite space that stretches away, elusive, before me.

    Permalink to quote #20

  3. In order to produce something new, you have to return to the original source, to the childhood of mankind.

    Permalink to quote #17

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