I've been cranky, moody and grumpy. My three favorite elves.
One of my favorite TV shows features someone else who is frequently in the same mood. It's a travel show featuring a New York chef who's narcissistic, misanthropic, atheistic and in may ways generally unpleasant. Oh, and he hates vegetarians. Sounds like he and I would get along famously. (What's really funny is re-reading that description, it sounds like a description that would match a few of my closest friends!)
In a recent show on French Polynesia, Bourdain followed the travels of the painter Paul Gauguin. I've never really liked Gauguin, don't really know why. I've seen a bunch of his stuff at the Art Institute, It's nice, great colors, interesting subject, but it never really excited me.
In the show, Bourdain travels to the Marguesas Islands. He meets with some of the indigenous Maori. His guide gives him a tour of some archaeological sites on the island. The guide shows Bourdain some wonderful stone statues that sat in the temples. Of course, they had been damaged and many destroyed by the Christian missionaries that came to save the souls of the heathens.
Gauguin is alternately described in the episode by Bourdain as a "dope fiend" "syphilitic" "pederast" "transvestite" and a few other things I choose not to remember. Yet Gauguin, who wouldn't even be allowed in the front door many churches then or today, recognized, and captured the inherent divinity of what surrounded him. The missionaries tried only to destroy what surrounded them in order to replace it with their own version. As a result, 95% of the indigenous population was wiped out by disease or violence. Fortunately, we have the work of as, Bourdain described him, "a cranky, syphilitic, pederast," to remind us of the beauty of God's creation. Isn't it funny that the artist preserved the divine which the church had tried to destroy?
Paul GauguinDay of the God (Mahana no Atua)
1894
Oil on canvas
26 7/8 x 36 in. (68.3 x 91.5 cm)
Art Institute of Chicago
Wildenstein Gauguin 1964 513 Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection
1926.198
Medieval to Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Gallery 234b
2 comments:
Anthony Bourdain is a treat--he has a real way with words, especially naughty ones. Interesting point about the dissolute Gauguin and his images of Polynesia.
Just watched the Bourdain Polynesia episode and he referred to Gauguin a grumpy pedarast and a syphalitic. Apparantly Gauguin traveled a lot to get away from local jurisdictions. He was a very naughty man.
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