A group from work went to the museum yesterday over lunch to see the Gauguin exhibit....Paul Gauguin: Paris 1889. The exhibit recreates an independant exhibit that Gauguin organized at the time of the 1889 Exposition Universelle. Gauguin approached Monsier Volpini, the owner of the Cafe des Arts, to hang 100 paintings created by Gauguin and his friends. A sort of thumbing of the nose to the art establishment, who excluded him from the Exposition.
In addition to the paintings, there are some original letters from Gauguin to his sister and from Van Goh to Gauguin. It was amazing to look at these fragile documents and see their hand writting and signatures. Especially Van Goh's (I am a fan). To see "Vincent" signed at the bottom of the letter gave me a thrill.
Part of this exhibit was Gauguin's lithographs which he produced himself. They were printed on yellow paper and were aimed at people who could not afford to purchase a painting. At the end of the exhibit, the CMA allows you to do some hands on art. Probably meant for children .... our group of administrators all huddled around the art table where they provided us with rubber stamps with some of Gauguin's images and crayons. So before we went back to work, we stamped and colored....and hung our creations on the wall. My 15 minues of fame is a signed original piece of work on the same walls that hold Gauguin's. LOL
By now you all know I have an obsession with Paris (really!). I am reading a book called Eiffel's Tower: And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count.
It's a historical look at the time leading up to the Exposition Universelle, the building of the Eiffel Tower and some of the famous personalites present....Buffalo Bill, Anne Oakley, Thomas Edision, Vincent Van Goh, Louis Pasteur, Paul Gauguin, James McNeill Whistler and more. Over 28 million travelled to Paris for the Exposition....in 1889. What an amazing time that must have been.
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