Gauguin

Attended a lecture on Paul Gauguin at the National Gallery; From Britanny to Tahiti.
Exhibition on Roderic O'Conor and the Modernists runs until end of October.
/www.nationalgallery.ie/between-paris-and-pont-aven

From There to Here

This revisioning of Gauguin
is not kind
But he still holds
Centre stage
Not for his artist
Savagery
Or his South Sea canvases
Or his salmon journey
to Peru
His pointed ears
Elongated chin
Wide cheek bones
Not for his derision
of civilisation
Or his Yellow Christ
Or his Noa Noa

But for his mimicry
His stagecraft
His Bill Cody hair
His Chinese takeaways
His ham acting-
That woodcutting incident-
His escape from Modernity
and deference to it
His self aggrandisement
Self advertisement
His deconstructed
Reconstruction
of himself

He could have run
for President here.

Copyright with Cathy Leonard 2018