Paul Gauguin: The Mysterious Centre of Thought [Hardcover]

French artist Eug?ne Henri Paul Gauguin (18481903) once reproached the Impressionists for searching around the eye and not at the mysterious centre of thought. But what did he mean by this enigmatic phrase? In this innovative investigation into Gauguins art and thought, Dario Gamboni illuminates Gauguins quest for this mysterious centre and offers a fresh look at the artists output in all mediafrom ceramics and sculptures to prints, paintings, and his large corpus of writings.
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Foregrounding Gauguins conscious use of ambiguity, Gamboni unpacks what the artist called the language of the listening eye. Gamboni shows that the interaction between perception, cognition, and imagination was at the core of Gauguins work, and he traces a line of continuity in them that has been previously overlooked. Emulating Gauguins wide-ranging curiosity with literature, psychology, theology, and the natural sciencesnot to mention the whole of art historythis richly illustrated book provides new insight into the life and works of this well-known yet little understood artist.

Dario Gamboniis professor of art history at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. His books includePotential Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern ArtandThe Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution, both published by Reaktion Books.

“Gamboni plunges deep into Gauguin’s use of myth, symbol, and the unconscious.”