GAUGINS SOUTH SEAS

It is 100 years since Paul Gauguin set sail for Tahiti, a journey that was to change his life and the course of western art. Like other Europeans before him, he travelled to the South Seas possessed with the dream of discovering a primitive paradise untroubled by the adverse effects of civilization. In his 10 years in Tahiti, and later in the Marquesas Islands where he spent his last days, Gauguin felt he had become a "savage", dressing, eating and living like a native, and conducting liaisons with Tahitian women whom he featured in many of his paintings. In "Gauguin's South Seas" , an illustrated biographical introduction tells the story of his tropical sojourns, drawing on his own writings, while the colour plates feature both well-known and less familiar works that convey his unique, idyllic view of the exotic landscapes he treasured.