French Village-Inspired Art

A new exhibition reveals that a sleepy Breton village inspired a generation of artists, including French painter Paul Gauguin.

Published

4 months ago

Categories

Arts & Society

Topics

Arts & Culture

People

Paul Gauguin

Places

France, Briton

Transcript

"Autour de Gauguin" or "Around Gauguin" highlights the generation of painters inspired by the sleepy French village of Pont-Aven. Paul Gauguin was the most famous of the group, but he left the Brittany region for more exotic locations like Tahiti. Exhibition curator Herve Duval says he wants to show the value of the generation of artists who followed in Gauguin's footsteps. SOUNDBITE: Curator Herve Duval, saying (French): "There was a split in the group and we wanted to see that in terms of those who stayed or those who came back, because others left definitively. We wanted to see what type of painting or what techniques they adopted, via a selection of quite important works, and the coordinator is no longer a man, is no longer Paul Gauguin, but Brittany." The group of around 25 international artists adopted a bold, colorful style and grew to love the multi-cultural countryside unspoiled by growing industrialization. SOUNDBITE: Curator Herve Duval, saying (French): "That is not insignificant, to have a form of exoticism at one's fingertips for these young artists, and above all this freedom, the right to try anything. They felt very free, totally disconnected from the constraints of Parisian officialdom." And that passion for creative freedom and for Brittany can be seen at Pont-Aven's Atelier Grognard.