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Gauguin, Munch and Photography
The Story of an Unexpected Collaboration
If Symbolism is the art of invisibility and interiority, how did two of its most emblematic figures, Paul Gauguin and Edvard Munch, use photography to transcend reality?
Photography invited his first imaginary journeys.
While in Paris, Gauguin collected photographs of European and Asian works, creating a portable museum for himself.
Chapter 1 - Looking at Paul Gauguin, Collecting Photography
Inspired by photography. A little, a lot or passionately…
His Polynesian paintings like Ta Matete or Ia Orana Maria, were inspired by, or borrowed motifs from, Oriental artists and Western masters. The photographs, and sometimes the engravings, of his favourite works and figures were always before his eyes.
Chapter 2 - Looking at Paul Gauguin, Photography in Polynesia
Kodak Bull's-Eye No. 2.
Munch used personal or commercial photographs as models for his portraits and documented his series (The Frieze of Life or The Sick Child held at the Munch Museum Oslo with photographic prints that allowed him to reproduce sold works. He even became a compulsive selfitis.
Chapter 3 - Munch's Case, A Passion for Photographic Material
Even more unexpected…
Was the influence that fluid photography and cinematography had on Munch's paintings (The Scream from the Munch Museum or Puberty from the National Gallery Oslo) ...
Chapter 4 - Munch's Case, An Art Imbued with Photographic and Cinematographic Material
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