Week 6 Gauguin

For the purposes of this blog about Gauguin’s painting, “The Yellow Christ” we can begin by discussing reference, then deference, and finally difference. It could be argued that Gauguin spent a great deal of time exploring the status of the artist and making a comparison to the importance of the common man having the image of God in the form of his son.

Gauguin’s painting, “The Yellow Christ” is a balance of warm and cool colors and from the man leaving in the background the viewer gets the feeling that the artist is implying that Christ will never be taken down. We have three women in the fore ground surrounding the figure with heads bowed in prayer. There is no blood, no gore. The viewer is able to see the symbolic wounds without the guilt of seeing the suffering as in many other works of Christ’s crucifixion. In this field of warm yellows and reds our figures are dressed in whites and blues providing a cooling effect. Reflected in the background in the greens and purples of the hills this is only a temporary feeling however. As there is a great deal more warmth than these hits of cool colors can balance.

By painting himself as the main figure of this work Gauguin is referring to one of the most important moment in Christian beliefs and using himself according to our text as the model. Gauguin is known for his use of his own image in his work and this is a very modern concept. By placing himself as Christ in human form he is implying that he is a, “superior being underpinned the notion of the artist as a courageous ‘independent’ struggling against a philistine public.” This was once a condition of the avant-garde artist.

We have the deference to the impressionist artists in the quick strokes, bright colors, and lack of anatomical correctness that was seen in realist works. The landscape in the background is only minimally in formed and the colors seem to bleed one into another. Aurier discussed the concept of ‘Decorative’ which talks about the distortion of the background in a work. It can be argued that this system of values has a greater quality to add distance in this work. Taking the otherwise flattened form of Christ on the cross and giving him weight.

The main difference is that Gauguin is trying to express a depth of feeling for the romantic side of religion. Where we can leave the blood and gore behind and focus on the gift given to us in this act. We have the opportunity to walk away and the artist expresses this in the distance of the field where we see the man climbing over the wall as if to say I do not care or cannot be bothered.

We are reminded in reference to our connection with the almighty, the deference in using impressionist styles, and the difference of the decorative space created in the background that modern artists are interested in proving why we should pay attention to their work.