Delightful Land 1893 - 1894

Editor: This is Paul Gauguin's woodcut, "Delightful Land", created around 1893-94. It has such a strange, almost unsettling feel to it, with these roughly carved figures and shadowy shapes. It really draws me in, but also makes me wonder...what's really going on here? What do you make of it? Curator: Well, what grabs me is how Gauguin is trying to capture something beyond the visual. He's reaching for the dreamlike, the mythic quality of the Polynesian landscape, seen through his own very European lens, of course. Look at the title; that almost saccharine phrase contrasting the rawness of the medium… it’s loaded! What *is* a delightful land anyway? And who gets to define it? Editor: I see what you mean! The lizard feels almost like an interloper… a dark, scaly creature. Does it symbolize something, or is that too literal? Curator: Symbols aren’t always literal! But lizards *do* often symbolize transformation or perhaps a hidden truth. Consider the Tahitian culture he was immersed in, and his romantic, perhaps misguided, quest for an unspoiled paradise. Then it all starts swimming in the ocean of your imagination! Editor: It's strange to think about that quest, romanticizing a culture that wasn't his own. Curator: Exactly. The Western gaze, romanticising other cultures… are you reminded of anything else? Or more precisely, what do *you* see in this work, from your perspective, with all your references, cultural awareness, and dreams? Editor: I think, more than a “delightful land," it’s a work about the tension between fantasy and reality. And how we sometimes project our own desires onto other cultures and other human beings… thanks! It’s really given me a lot to ponder. Curator: The delight’s all mine. Never stop pondering, that's what I say!