Paul Gauguin created this travesty in 1891. You can pass by it at the Guggenheim.
Gauguin wanted to go to Tahiti to
“immerse [himself] in virgin nature, see no one but savages, live their life, with no other thoughts in mind but to render the way a child would . . . and to do this with nothing but the primitive means of art, the only means that are good and true.”
Ugh. What a nightmare. What’s worse about this is scholars think he looked to the Trajan Column and the gosh darn PARTHENON when painting this guy and his horse. He wanted to make the primitive accessible to a Western art audience. YEESH, what a clown.
arthipstory 