Paul Gauguin (Paris 1848 - 1903 Atuona/Hiva Oa) is one of the most influential pioneers of artistic modernism, whose best-known paintings were created on the South Sea island of Tahiti between 1891 and 1901. “Paul Gauguin - Why are you angry?” in the Alte Nationalgalerie looks at Gauguin's works, which are also influenced by Western, colonial ideas of 'exoticism' and 'eroticism', against the background of current discourses and confronts his works with positions of contemporary artists *Inside.
Gauguin left the art metropolis of Paris, his wife and five children in 1891 to embark on a spiritual and artistic quest in French Polynesia. He lived here with an interruption until his death in 1903. During this phase, among other things, one of Gauguin's major works from the collection of the National Gallery, the painting “Tahitian Fisherwomen” from 1891, was created.
Against the background of historical models and post-colonial debates, the exhibition puts the myth of the “wild artist” created by Gauguin himself up for discussion. Gauguin, for his part, was already drawing on a colonial dream of an earthly paradise, which at the same time enabled him to embark on a completely new kind of art. “Paul Gauguin – Why are you angry” approaches Gauguin from different perspectives and opens up current perspectives through works by contemporary artists such as Angela Tiatia (New Zealand/Australia), Yuki Kihara (Samoa/Japan) or Nashashibi/Skaer (Great Britain) and the Tahitian activist and artist Henri Hiro (French Polynesia).
“Paul Gauguin – Why are you angry?” is a special exhibition at the Nationalgalerie, Staatlichemuseums zu Berlin, in cooperation with and based on the concept of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, made possible by the Friends of the Nationalgalerie. Curated by Anna Kærsgaard Gregersen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, with Ralph Gleis, Alte Nationalgalerie.