Sculpture «Taityanka» represents a female figure with half eyes. The artist is just as time passes, this state, the unknown man of western civilization

During his first visit to Tahiti (9 June 1891 - June 14, 1893), Gauguin was fascinated by the exotic beauty taityanok. It was then that the artist created a series of interesting images from portraits, to which a person, like masks, bear the stamp mysticism and simultaneously express a sense of melancholy and the inner depths of personality. Living in Tahiti at the time of the artist posing as if immersed in the world hereafter and see the spirits of death ( «tupapau»). Removal and condition «sleep dreams» Modeling transferred Gauguin in his portraits, are connected with the Polynesian perception of the world where this is seen through the prism of the past. These figures are inherent in the same almost sculptural plasticity, therefore naturally became the embodiment of those same images in the sculpture.

Sculpture «Taityanka» represents a female figure with half eyes. The artist is just as time passes, this state, the unknown man of western civilization. Gauguin went to Tahiti in search of «ecstasy at the same time calm and creativity», but found only silence, petrifaction tropical nights on the island, where almost nothing happens.

drowse, which submerged the island and its inhabitants, we can see in the image of modern Gauguin photos, film in Tahiti (Charles Spittsa and Henri Lemassona). In fact, the artist often drew inspiration for the creation of the paintings from his collection of photos - particularly felt in the works «Teha'amana» (1893) and «Female Portrait» (1899-1900).

elaboration person in the sculpture is of extraordinary beauty. The figure, made of ayronvuda (Sc. «Lignum vitae» Casauarina equisetifolia), a very strong wood, like a «born» from the tree: only the visible hair girls chest and arm. Ieratichnaya posture and hair flowing sculptural shapes like pieces of pottery androginov «OVIR» Gauguin, executed in 1894. We know that model, by which it was created ceramics, were carved out of wood and now lost. Perhaps the sculpture, like the one that will be offered for auction, as the prototype for the development of the ceramic series.

Sculpture «Taityanka», of course, is not only a great work of the artist, but also extremely rare. It is less than 20 sculptures Gauguin, comparable to the largest. Most of them come from the former collection of Daniel de Monfrayda (Daniel de Monfreid) and is now in French museums. Discovered the sculpture will become a sensation in the world of museum curators and collectors. There are many mysteries associated with the period of the artist when he lived in Tahiti, and the sculpture could be a clue of one of them.

Source: ArtDaily ( www.artdaily.org )