Two tahitian women 1899

This painting, made by Paul Gauguin using oil on canvas, presents two Tahitian women in a vibrant, abstracted landscape. Gauguin was interested in disrupting traditional techniques of painting, and here he does so by emphasizing flattened forms and non-naturalistic color. See how the pigments create blocks of pure sensation, rather than illusionistic space? This emphasis on materiality is crucial. He’s saying, in effect, that painting can be powerful as painting, not just as a representation of something else. The setting and subject matter also reflect Gauguin's interest in cultures outside the European tradition, and in moving away from an industrialized, capitalist society. Yet, paradoxically, his paintings became luxury commodities in that very system. This tension between the desire to escape modernity and the inevitable entanglement with it is central to understanding Gauguin’s work.