Noa Noa : The Tahitian Journal

By: Paul Gauguin

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Paperback | 1 June 1985

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Impressions from two years in Tahiti. Compelling autobiographical fragment.

Paul Gauguin fled what he called "filthy Europe" in 1891 to what he hoped would be an unspoiled paradise, Tahiti. He painted 66 magnificent can vases during the first two years he spent there and kept notes from which he later wrote Noa Noa - a journal recording his thoughts and impressions of that time.

Noa Noa - the most widely known of Gauguin's writings - is reproduced here from a rare early edition (1919), in a lucid translation capturing the artist's unpretentious style. Page after page reveals Gauguin's keen observations of Tahiti and its people, and his passionate struggle to achieve the inner harmony he expressed so profoundly on canvas. Gauguin's prose is as seductive as his paintings, filled with descriptions of warm seas, hidden lagoons, lush green forests, and beautiful Maori women.

The journal is captivating reading, offering a compelling autobiographical fragment of the soul of a genius and a rare glimpse of Oceanian culture. The brief periods of happiness Gauguin found among the Tahitians are eloquently expressed in his narrative. We understand the motives that drove him and gain a deeper appreciation of his art.

Today the manuscript provides unparalleled insight into Gauguin's thoughts as he strove to achieve spiritual peace, and into the wellsprings of a singular artistic style which changed the course of modern art. This wonderfully affordable edition - enhanced by 24 of Gauguin's South Seas drawings - makes a unique and passionate testament accessible to all art lovers.

Industry Reviews

Gauguin may have been guilty of buying into the myth of the "noble savage," but his Romantic quest seems almost contemporary today. In his own post-Rousseau, premulticultural time, however, his Tahitian escapade was viewed less sanguinely. On his return to France, unable to find a publisher, Gauguin himself published his diary, Noa Noa, minus the accompanying woodblock illustrations. Now the journal and art are reunited in this verbal and visual ode to Tahiti. The black-and-white woodblock prints present a spare contrast to the usual wash of colors in Gauguin's paintings, but they retain the pacific sensuality that permeates his work. The color here comes from the sketches Gauguin made in the margins of his diary, and from the writing itself: "Silence? I am learning to know the silence of a Tahitian night.... The rays of the moon play through the bamboo reeds.... Between me and the sky there was nothing except the high frail roof of pandanus leaves, where the lizards have their nests." - (Kirkus Reviews)

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