Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
Inspiration from Artists Wk 157 Featuring Artists : Paul Gauguin and Saul Robertson
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Message
Posted
Jenny you got caught up in my dyslexia, I stated it of incorrect spelling which Alan pointed out . When it’s a word I don’t use very often I can look at it turn to write it and still get it wrong, and when I check back I don’t notice my mistake, while I use spell check that doesn’t always help as it sometimes changes the word and again I don’t notice it .
I honestly never mind people letting me know it not the correct spelling, at my age having live with it for so long I don’t think it’s going to change now , but I do dislike messing thing up .
Posted
I did think twice before suggesting Gauguin, as I knew it would attract negative comments about his character, but he was an important artist of his time and I’d hoped we could focus on his work as ‘Artistic Inspiration’ in the spirit of this thread. He was a firm favourite of mine from childhood - I loved his style and sense of colour - before I was aware of any unpleasant character traits. Yes, when I found out, it did temper somewhat my view of his work, but I can still enjoy his artistic achievements for what they were.
Posted
Right, I've been through my post and edited out all the mistakes - bar one, in a later post, where an accent was actually missing: no prize for spotting it. And in future I shall rigorously check before posting: can't honestly say I'll be any briefer, though. That would be asking too much of me.
I did try to deal with the sleazy side of Gauguin in my post: mind you, I can quite understand if Peter lacked the patience to read it... but I didn't offer an answer because I haven't got one. Is it possible to ignore the character flaws of an artist in evaluating their work? Certainly, Gauguin had flaws to spare; Caravaggio had plenty; Eric Gill, a brilliant sculptor, was a paricularly egregious pervert; Ezra Pound - poet, not painter - was a fascist; Knut Hamsun - novelist - at best a Nazi sympathizer. I didn't know that Monet loathed Gauguin: and of the two, I have greater admiration for Monet's work. But if it had been the other way around, if Monet had been the sex-pest and Gauguin as pure as the driven snow .... what effect would that have on appreciating his work? If anyone suffered for his sins, Gauguin did; Eric Gill didn't seem to suffer at all - what does one make of this? Is a thoroughly nasty, wicked, self-centred creep to be forever condemned, however great his work might be (leaving aside whether we all agree it is great or not)?
Well - I didn't offer an answer but will: I think you just have to look at the work, and leave the character and crimes of the artists out of it. So I think the man who vandalized Gill's sculpture on the BBC building deserves time in prison - even if Gill deserved it more and didn't get it. But I anticipate much disagreement, because of all the crimes one could commit, abusing children has to be one of the very worst; and I don't think the "different times, different attitudes" really stands up in either Gill's or Gauguin's case, though in other cases, it might.
Anyway, deep and polluted waters, and I'll understand if no one else feels like wading into them. (In passing by the way: I've never liked Gauguin's paintings, even the early ones which I compared favourably to the later South Sea island works: I think he was an important artist, a loathsome man, and that Van Gogh was well rid of him; unfortunately, Van Gogh didn't feel the same way - just another of the crosses that unfortunate man had to bear when the other left him.)
Posted
PS - Jenny: posts crossed. I agree with you but when you look at his paintings of young girls and are aware of his behaviour with them, it's extremely hard to ignore it. Still; yes, if the work is important, we have to admit that it is: talent and saintliness don't always ride in tandem and that's just one those facets of human nature we have to accept. You needn't reproach yourself in any way for celebrating his work, and anyway his moral frailties are not unique.
Posted
If we did a thread of artist who are distasteful, unpleasant or just out and out nasty we would had another three years of reading threads . Yes do mention that they are unpleasant people but let’s focus on the artwork , awful artist produced some good work , some saintly artists produced some rubbish, let’s accept that and move to the reason we post artwork in the first places.
Posted
I should have had the sense just to comment on Gauguin's art and not mention his character which as you all so rightly say does not really affect the appreciation of his art.
I just don't think he was a very good artist. He was hopeless at perspective, often just painted in blocks of colour with no finesse and his drawing could be awful. You may say that he chose to paint like that which might well be true but equally he might have painted like that because he wasn't good enough to do any better! I don't think we should make excuses for bad work simply because someone else tells us the person was a brilliant painter. It look at what is in front of me and if it's bad it's bad, as simple as that.
Edited
by Peter Smith
Posted
Peter don’t worry about it , it’s done and we can get on with looking at the artwork. I’ve looked at his work and I’m not a fan of his style of painting and honestly I’ve seen far better artist on POL , but he is held in esteem by many people and they see what I don’t . That’s why we have this thread to help us look at the different artists not in isolation but with others who can offer their perspective on a particular artist work and sometimes it enables us to see it a different way, unfortunately sometimes it doesn’t. We can’t like every piece of artwork we see not every style of painting , what we can do is look at it and maybe learn why we don’t like it and some else does, often I don’t like a particular artist work but I can see the skill in it and respect that , very occasionally I don’t think there is a great deal of skill , but who am I to judge .