Nave Nave Fenua (from the series of ten woodcuts intended for the book "Noa Noa")

 

Paul Gauguin

 

1894 -95 

color woodcut 

14 1/8 x 8 5/16" image size 

initialed in the block, lower left descending 

from the first edition after proofs 

 

Kornfeld 14, Guerin 29, Prelinger 13, Figura 58 

ivory Japan wove 

iv/iv 

artist and Louis Roy 

18198 

SOLD

The Noa Noa woodcuts illustrate everything that drew Gauguin to printmaking. Although the woodcut had seen a modest revival in the nineteenth century, no example matched the audacity of Gauguin's approach to the medium, which allowed him to work on a natural, "primitive" matrix, creating works that combined the sculptural gouging of his carved wood low reliefs with the evocative color of his paintings. It also provided seemingly endless opportunity for experimentation. Gauguin printed Noa Noa blocks with various inkings and color combinations, on different papers, and sometimes slightly off-register to create a blurred, dreamlike image, as in The Gods. In addition to the Noa Noa woodcuts printed by the artist, impressions were also pulled by the professional printer Louis Roy during the artist's lifetime; others were produced posthumously by Gauguin's son, Pola, and by others. Sarah Suzuki