Where are you going? 1892

"Where are you going?" was made in the late 19th century by Paul Gauguin, using oil paint on canvas. It’s a traditional medium but here, used in a decidedly non-traditional way. Gauguin's mark-making has a deliberately rough, unschooled quality. He thinned the paint, so that you can see the canvas texture underneath. He also mixed his colors right on the canvas, instead of painstakingly blending them on the palette first. Look closely, and you’ll see the many little brushstrokes that make up each color patch, and the dark outlines to contain the figures. There's something deeply performative about this approach. Gauguin wanted to appear as though he had simply picked up these techniques spontaneously, as though he was naturally aligned with the indigenous peoples he encountered. This deliberately underplays his formal art training, and conveniently sidesteps the labor of learning how to paint. So while the work appears at first glance to be a celebration of the exotic, it’s also a reminder of the artist’s complex motivations. Ultimately, understanding the artist’s approach to materials and process is key to untangling Gauguin's complex relationship with his subject matter.