Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Noa Noa, Paperback / softback Book

Noa Noa Paperback / softback

Edited by Jonathan Griffin

Part of the Lives of the Artists series

Paperback / softback

Description

Gauguin's great diary from Tahiti almost never saw the light of day in its original form.

The manuscript was sent by the artist from his island refuge to his friend Charles Morice in Paris, and published in 1901 with immediate success, under the two names of Paul Gauguin and Charles Morice.

Morice, with Gauguin's permission, had 'edited' and enlarged it to make it more readable.

How much of the charm and crispness of the manuscript had been lost in the process was anyone's guess.

It was to be 40 years before Gauguin's original version came to light, and it is published here in a translation by the poet Jonathan Griffin, together with a detailed description by the art historian Jean Loize, who re-discovered the manuscript.

Loize shows that Morice had in parts altered Gauguin's text beyond recognition - a startling discovery that entirely changed ideas about Gauguin's style and intentions.

This genuine version of Noa Noa is not only an important document, it is also a beautiful piece of writing: amusing, acid, wide-eyed, moving.

Gauguin feared that, unedited, it would seem absurdly crude; and no doubt it would have, to most readers in his day.

Today we can appreciate its sketch form, jerky directness, authentic freshness.

This edition is illustrated with the watercolours, wood-engravings and drawings that Gauguin assembled for the book.

Information

Other Formats

Save 2%

£9.99

£9.79

 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information

Also in the Lives of the Artists series  |  View all