Another of those names that needs little introduction. The Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien brings us Austria’s first major Gauguin retrospective in decades with the Unexpected exhibition.
- Around 80 works
- Paintings, prints & sculptures
- Traces his artistic evolution
- Runs Oct 3, 2024 – Jan 19, 2025
- Enjoy a classical concert* on your trip
- See also:
Unexpected
(Paul Gauguin, Interior with Aline, 1881, oil on canvas, 75.7 x 86.9 cm, Sheffield Museums Trust, loan from a private owner © Sheffield Museums Trust)
Vienna has a trio of Christmas presents for those who enjoy art: Chagall, Rembrandt and Gauguin (and I’ll add Jim Dine to make it a quartet).
The third in that list of artistic giants comes in the form of the Unexpected exhibition: a major retrospective across autumn and winter at the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien.
The exhibition presents art from Gauguin’s early post-impressionism period through to his work as a pioneer of modernism. Paintings, prints and sculptures all feature, drawn from national and international sources that include prestigious museums and major private collections: quite an undertaking.
Of course, “early” is a relative term for the artist best known for his paintings from the Pacific islands. Born in 1848, he only really dedicated himself fully to art in the 1880s.
In the “short” period of creativity that lasted until Gauguin’s death in 1903, his innovative understanding and implementation of form, colour and composition would prove significantly influential on future artists and movements.
Gauguin’s work represents an important waystation on the road to viewing a picture as something far more than reproduction of a scene.
(More than just paintings…Paul Gauguin, earthenware vessel with Breton girl,sheep and geese, 1886/87, 13.5 x 18 x 9 cm, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen © Ole Haupt)
Abstraction, Fauvism and Expressionism, for example, all owe a debt to Gauguin. His paintings fetch nine figure dollar sums today.
Yet Gauguin also poses a challenge. How do you judge his art in a modern context given concerns around such aspects as the colonial view and his role as abuser?
The artist versus the art. Aesthetics versus ethics. A man of his time versus the enlightened modern eye.
Accompanying events address the issue of Gauguin’s problematical character, but Unexpected largely focuses on his art and creative evolution…mapped out chronologically through the galleries.
The exhibition title stems from the inclusion of important works that illustrate that evolution but which the popular image of Gauguin tends to ignore, i.e. you see much more than paintings from Tahiti.
For example, the presentation begins with Gauguin’s semi-traditional impressionist landscapes from the 1880s. Had he stayed with that genre, he might have become nothing more than a footnote in some academic treatise. (Spoiler alert: he didn’t stay with that genre.)
(Paul Gauguin, Auti Te Pape, 1893-94 Suite Noa Noa woodcut in black, orange brown and yellow on Simili Japan paper, 20.3 x 35.6 cm © Galleri K, Oslo private collection)
The chronological progression means we can then follow a lifetime in art in 80 or so works.
So we discover the critical period around 1889/1890, when Gauguin retreats to rural France and begins the transition to simplification with hints of abstraction. And the addition of light and colour through his first Tahiti trip in the early 1890s.
One gallery, for example, displays Gauguin’s Noa Noa woodcuts. Quite apart from the insights into the artist, the different prints reveal the role of paper colour, paper quality, and print strength on the printed outcome: fascinating in itself.
Unexpected indeed!
Dates, tickets & tips
Enjoy the journey through Gauguin’s oeuvre from October 3rd, 2024 to January 19th, 2025. A ticket for the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien gets you into the main exhibition.
I mentioned them in the introduction, but Gauguin shares top autumn/winter billing with the Albertina’s Chagall retrospective and the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s Rembrandt & Hoogstraten exhibition.
And should you visit across the Advent period, two of Vienna’s best Christmas markets live either side of the Kunstforum:
- The Altwiener Christkindlmarkt outside on Freyung square, notable for the decorations sold on the central stall
- The Weihnachtsmarkt on Am Hof square just down the road, which stands out with the wider range of food and drink than at most markets
(Wander up past the Am Hof market to reach the pedestrianised centre with all its seasonal lights.)
How to get to Gauguin
Simply follow the travel tips in the main Kunstforum article. The institution is within Vienna’s old town so conveniently central.
Address: Freyung 8, 1010 Vienna