The last thing that Bonnard and Vuillard and Matisse wanted to do was paint portentous allegories about the destiny of mankind, as Gauguin did.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Gauguin claims artists like Bonnard and Matisse avoided the grand allegories about human destiny that he pursued.
- In plain terms
- Other artists avoided big destiny themes that Gauguin embraced.
- What can you take from it?
- Artists differ in their ambition to address humanity's grand destiny.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What big themes do you avoid or embrace?
- How does your scope compare to your peers?
Another view
Comparison can oversimplify the intentions of other artists.
More from Paul Gauguin
Gauguin's work is symbolic, and he himself is a myth. He rejected the values of bourgeois society and of a machine civilization. His gesture had its sordid sid…
Permalink to quote #30 The popular fancy that Gauguin 'discovered himself' as a painter in Tahiti is quite wrong. All the components of his work - the flat patterns of colour, the wr…
Permalink to quote #32 I advised him to go to New Orleans, but he decided it was too civilized. He had to have people around him with flowers on their heads and rings in their noses …
Permalink to quote #29
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