Is this really a famous painter? Anyone know anything about him? Correct spelling of his name? Did he go to Tahiti? I can't find anything about him online... Some stuff on a Vincent Gaughan... but I'm curious if theres any truth to the reference "chick it all like Gogan? Cheers!
sharePaul Gaugin (b. June 7, 1848, Paris, Fr.--d. May 8, 1903, Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia) is one of the leading French painters of the Postimpressionist period, whose development of a conceptual method of representation was a decisive step for 20th-century art.
After spending a short period with Vincent van Gogh in Arles (1888), Gauguin increasingly abandoned imitative art for expressiveness through colour. From 1891 he lived and worked in Tahiti and elsewhere in the South Pacific.
His masterpieces include the early Vision After the Sermon (1888) and Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897-98).
[Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994]
You can google him and LOTS of information and see some of his art.
The correct spelling is "Gauguin". I'm not surprised you had trouble searching for him. :)
"Chuck it all like Gauguin." means to abandon a complex life for a simpler one in a far away place doing what you love.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gauguin
i know i was shocked too that it was a real man. gauguin. my dad and i watched some movie with keifer sutherland that was based on his life. odd that blake put some "real stuff" in a comedy. shoulda put some funny stuff, like chuck it all like robin williams who left san francisco for julliard...but nonetheless one of the best movies of all time.
Forget hoof-and-mouth disease, I'm gonna get poo-in-mouth disease. Mike Rowe
OMG, people what do they teach you in school?! 'you were shocked too that it was a real man'??? I cannot believe this! We learn it in school in, like, 6th grade!
i come from a small country town that taught us *beep* for school. somehow i graduated from one of the top 10 schools of the state. i am amazed everyday i have actually made in the real world. i hate my *beep* town and the *beep* they taught us...nothing at all!
Forget hoof-and-mouth disease, I'm gonna get poo-in-mouth disease. Mike Rowe
Which is not really an excuse. I presume you have a library in yout *beep* town, just like you have an internet connection. The only thing you need is curiosity.
shareyeah, and guess what my town's library is just open 3 days a week, so i go to another town to get internet connection. i know lots of people who kid around with "real" people and it's a crock, such as survivor's "real" life. it's a joke really...also see how many people thought george eliot was really a man, she wrote silias marner, some decent book that was based on steve martin's a simple twist of fate (both excellent stories)...some people in my high school thought that. or even didn't realize that the one who wrote my antonia, willa cather, was lesbian. and it's really crazy because she lived with a woman for 20 plus years and well, put it in perspective here, she likened her nickname william. also, others, whilst filling out college applications were baffled with: female, male, other...for gender. i wonder, does it really matter?
Forget hoof-and-mouth disease, I'm gonna get poo-in-mouth disease. Mike Rowe
Excuses, excuses... Gauguin was a famous painter and I think that not knowing who he is is exactly the same as if you wouldn't know who Van Gogh was.
sharehey at least i know that van gogh was a painter unlike some ass holes in my class. they also didn't know who edgar allen poe was. that's disrespectful. hey do you know who gwendolyn brooks is? how about louise erdrich? ana castillo?
Forget hoof-and-mouth disease, I'm gonna get poo-in-mouth disease. Mike Rowe
Thanks Masalchuk for suggesting 'all one really needs is curiosity' -- although, the fellow was curious who Gogan was, eh? We can't depend on what we are taught or what libraries or Internets have unless we are curious enough to browse. I hope our grandchildren still have libraries, because books are much more accessible than the Niagara of info on the 'net. Too many distractions IMHO.
I miss Big Band music and talented singers. Leonard Cohen is my idol. Civility, harmony, unity!
It's not enough to be "curious enough to browse". You also have to know what you want to look for. The painter Gauguin is well known to many people but obviously not to everybody.
If I can come up with a more obscure example - does anybody know who Willie Shoemaker is? Of course you don't, unless you know a bit about horse racing and then you would know that he was quite famous in his own way, and if you don't know to type "Willie Shoemaker" into the internet you may never know that bit of trivia.
I'm 73 and live near Santa Anita Racetrack so of course I know W.S. But I don't know if he's the winningest jockey of all time -- I think he's been surpassed by a jockey who came along after he retired - with a Spanish surname. Or, Johnny Longden may have created a record that even W.S. couldn't break. OK, I guess I need to do what you say -- go to Wikipedia. Excellent post SkyBob.
I miss Big Band music and talented singers. Leonard Cohen is my idol. Civility, harmony, unity!
As I inferred in my earlier post, it can be difficult to search for for something if you don't know how to spell it, especially a name like "Gauguin".
Even though I took 2 semesters of art history in college, and have a reasonable knowledge of Gauguin's life, I still have to look up how to spell his name correctly. :)