Gauguin and Buddhism

Canvases as ascetic practices

Abstract

　　At the further bottom of Christian “original sin” and Tahitian “wildness,” what is the “Buddhism” that kept moving Gogan's life? It is generally believed that the painter Paul Gauguin went to Tahiti to recover the wildness that had been lost in modern societies, but is this true? He once lived a luxurious life as a stockbroker. However, in 1882, he lost a lot of money when the Paris stock market crashed, and in the midst of the depression, he had no choice but to live a humble life as an unknown painter. As he struggled to survive, he began to have doubts about Christian dogmatism and awakened from the illusions of capitalism along with the truth of Buddhism, which he encountered at the 1878 World's Fair in Paris. “In the eyes of the Tathagata, (...) the pursuit of the Buddha's path is like a flower.” These are “fragrant” words written in Noanoa, but they are actually a quote from the early Buddhist scripture: 42 Chapters of the Sutra. He also had Dhammapada. To fight against the “evil” of civilization, he believed that the best way to follow the Buddha’s teachings. Therefore, he went to Tahiti “to retrain himself,” and painted while recalling the Buddha's teachings. Thus, he conceived “Where do we come from, What are we, Where are we going.” What was Gauguin trying to convey through this final work? In order to generate new discussion, I would like to present an image of Gauguin who regarded painting as a path to a Buddha.