Paul Gauguin, Merahi metua no Tehamana (The ancestors of Teha'amana) (detail); 1893; oil on burlap; 75 x 53 cm; Chicago, the Art Institute, don Mr. and Mrs. Charles Deering McCormick; © the Art Institute of Chicago

With a collection of more than 230 works by the artist (54 paintings, 29 ceramics, 35 sculptures and objects, 14 wooden blocks, 67 engravings and 34 drawings), Gauguin the alchemist is an exceptional dive into the fascinating process creation of the great artist.

It is the first exhibition of its kind to study in depth the remarkable complementarity of the artist's creations in the fields of painting, sculpture, graphic and decorative arts. It emphasizes the modernity of Gauguin's creative process (1848-1903), his ability to constantly push the limits of each medium.

After the founding Gauguin exhibition organized in 1989, this new collaboration between the Art Institute of Chicago - which has a significant collection of paintings and graphic works by Gauguin - and the Musée d'Orsay - including the collection of paintings, ceramics and woodcarvings of the artist is one of the most important in the world -, allows to present in a new light the experiments of Gauguin on various supports. It shows the artist's production in all its diversity, in the light of recent research on the techniques and materials used by Gauguin, drawing in particular on the expertise of Harriet K. Stratis, Senior Research Conservator at Art Institute of Chicago for the graphic work of Gauguin, or the works of Dario Gamboni, professor at the University of Geneva. The exhibition route is thus punctuated with rooms offering an immersion in the artist's techniques and working methods.

Based on a chronological framework, and punctuated by a large number of exceptional loans (The ancestors of Teha'amana, Chicago; Eh what? Are you jealous?, Pushkin Museum, etc.), the exhibition highlights the he interweaving and mutual contributions between formal and conceptual patterns, but also between painting and objects: in the latter the weight of tradition, less heavy, allows more liberation and a certain letting go. A narrow selection of sources looked at by Gauguin allows us to fully understand his creative process (ceramics, impressionist works, extra-European art, etc.).

Prelude to the course of the exhibition, “La fabrique des images” is devoted to the beginnings of Gauguin, from his representation of modern life in the wake of Degas and Pissarro, to the first repetitions of a motif, around still life and possibilities of mise en abyme that it offers.

“Le grand atelier” then focuses on the artist's Breton period.

The observation of Breton life, integrated, transformed and assimilated, allows him to identify recurring patterns that know many avatars (the round, the seated woman, the Breton from behind ...) and to begin formal research in drawing, painting and ceramics.

“From the subject to the symbol” shows how Gauguin, driven by a growing artistic ambition, turned towards compositions more and more invested with moral meanings, which became the receptacle of his inner states. Their accomplishment is found in the staging of the suffering and savage “terrible self”. The patterns do not escape this change: thus the bather becomes Leda, the figure of despair inspired by a mummy from the Trocadero becomes an allegory of human misery, and the woman in the waves turns into Ondine.

“The image of the Tropics” highlights the resonance of Maori traditions in Gauguin's work. While he built during his first trip to Tahiti a personal imagery of Tahitian life, the exhibition again underlines the power of his formal research. The recurring theme of an “inhabited” nature runs through the works brought together in this section, as evidenced by the pastoral works and the development of the theme of Man in nature.

Breathing within the course, a room is dedicated to the manuscript of Noa Noa, very rarely shown to the public.

The section “Myths and Reinventions” highlights the amplification of the mystical dimension of Gauguin's work in Tahiti. Faced with the limited material traces left by Tahitian cults, Gauguin invents a new visual language from Tahitian oral tradition. The figure of the disturbing Spirit of the Dead (Buffalo, Albright - Knox Art Gallery) coming to torment Tahitians comes back constantly in the works of this period.

The final section “In his decor” is centered on Gauguin's obsession with decorative research in his last period, both in interiors and in the evocation of lush nature (Rupe Rupe, Pushkin Museum). A total work of art, his hut at Hiva Oa (the House of Enjoyment) completes his quest for a primitive golden age. The digital evocation in the form of a hologram of the Maison du Jouir, presented for the first time in an exhibition with the sculptures that adorned its entrance, ends the route with a discovery of Gauguin's last house-workshop. The opportunity to offer the public an unprecedented immersion in the workshop of its creation.

Pratical information

This exhibition is presented from June 25 to September 10, 2017 at the Art Institute of Chicago.

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• in Paris : Claire Bernardi, painting curator, Musée d'Orsay; Ophélie Ferlier-Bouat, sculpture curator, Musée d'Orsay
• in Chicago : Gloria Groom, Chair of European Painting and Sculpture Department, David and Mary Winton Green curator, Art Institute of Chicago

opening : Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 20 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 22 p.m. Closed every Tuesday.

Closed at 18 p.m. on Sunday 24 and 31 December. Closed Monday December 25.

prices : € 14, € 10 TR (16-25 years old, job seekers, large families). Free for children under 16, beneficiaries of RSA and minimum old age. 38 € tribal rate (2 adults and 2 young people aged 16-25).

access: metro line 1 and 13 "Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau" or line 9 "Franklin D. Roosevelt"