I’ve spoken before about how much nudes appeal to me, or have I? Well, I do have a serious appreciation for nude paintings and sculptures which I have in various shapes, sizes and colors in my collection of art as well as for my many books on the subject. Actually, I’m not quite sure how I developed such a proclivity for the naked body particularly since it took me most of my life to get comfortable with my own. Then again, maybe that is the simple answer.
Honestly, I have no recollection of exactly when I was no longer shocked by seeing private parts on display, not sure I ever was for that matter. I do remember the first time I saw the Tahitian women Gauguin painted in a book plucked from the shelves at my grandparent’s house. As I fantasized about going to this place I had never heard of and traced the brown voluptuous curves with my fingers, I found nothing obscene about their nakedness though it seemed others held them in disdain. How on earth anyone considered work like this to be pornographic was hard for me to fathom; we’re all entitled to our opinion. 
Anyway, I love the National Gallery of Art a place I have frequented since my grandparents took me as a child. The museum is currently featuring a special comprehensive exhibition on Gauguin and much like when I walked through the Rousseau exhibit when it was there I wept seeing the real canvases. To trace my fingers over the live bodies of his women from Tahiti would have been such a rush but I did find immense gratification in being able to see the fine details of each piece, something that is always lost on a page in a book. I almost fell down the steps when I came upon this huge mural at the top of the staircase and simply must go back for a longer visit; the place was way crowded for a girl like me who prefers intimacy with the masters.
keep your peepers open!®
eclectic eyes recollection of the first reaction to seeing the beautiful brown tahitian figures takes me back to my first encounter. it was on the stark white walls of my aunt merions wall. i sat and looked at the women in tomato red skirts squatting on the ground, so pretty and pensive. the lushness of the world they lived in made the concrete streets of my neighborhood seem like punishment.
ReplyDeletenothing else in that apartment compared to the glow that came from within that maple wood frame. i look forward to seeing the piece in the national gallery of art but i am sure that nothing can top the moments i sat starring at that print and traveling in my mind to the lush island of the beautiful brown people