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WORK TITLE: Gaugin: The Other World
WORK NOTES: trans by Edward Gauvin
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Milan
STATE:
COUNTRY: Italy
NATIONALITY: Italian
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/05/fabrizio-doris-dreamy-gauguin-the-other-world-defe.html * http://www.selfmadehero.com/news/2017/04/fabrizio-dori-on-gauguin-the-other-world/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Italy.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Comic artist.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Fabrizio Dori is a comic artist. He lives in Milan, Italy.
In Gauguin: The Other World, Dori writes about the life of nineteenth century French artist Paul Gauguin, starting in Europe and continuing through his time in Tahiti. The work is one in a series of illustrated books put out by independent publisher SelfMadeHeroes. Each graphic novel in the series focuses on the life of a different iconic artist, and is written and illustrated by a contemporary comic artist. Sarah Hunter in Booklist wrote: “Art lovers will appreciate this enigmatic, unsparing foray into the beleaguered painter’s psyche, delivered in an arresting, gaze-worthy package.” The book is written and illustrated by Dori and translated to English by Edward Gauvin.
The book takes the reader through Gauguin’s life, starting with his birth in Europe. The story then moves onto Gauguin’s childhood in South America, his years traveling the world as a sailor, and finally, to his time in Tahiti. Gauguin produced the majority of his famed artistic work in his later years, while living on the island, seeing out his final days there. Dori explores Gauguin’s family life, relationships, artistic inspirations, and reputation in the pages of Gauguin.
Dori includes moments that contributed to Gauguin’s development as an artist, such as his time in Paris. He also illustrates more intimate scenes from the artist’s personal life, such as moments with his wife in Denmark or scenes of Gauguin with his friends in Brittany.
Beyond covering Gauguin’s life travels and artistic inspirations, Dori addresses another aspect of the artist that has persisted through time: his reputation as an unpleasant person. Known for getting into fights and being difficult to be around, Gauguin was not well-liked. An example of Gauguin’s thoughtlessness can be seen in his move across the world. In relocating to Tahiti, Gauguin made the decision to abandon his wife and family. He was notorious for having conflict and fighting, notably in his time living with Van Gogh. The two fought fiercely, and there is even reason to believe Gauguin may have been responsible for Van Gogh’s missing ear. Dori addresses this aspect of Gauguin, though it is not the focus of the book.
Dori imitates Gauguin stylistically by using the same sorts of bright, lively color combinations that are common in the late artist’s paintings. The color choices change depending on what period of Gauguin’s life Dori is illustrating. When the story is placed in Tahiti, the colors are vibrant and lush. When Gauguin is back in Europe, Dori uses cooler, calmer colors, making nods to a more impressionist style.
Interspersed within the historically documented biography of Gauguin is another, more magical narrative. Dori references Tahitian mythology in creating spirits that interact with and guide Gauguin. One such figure makes repeated appearances. This spirit is a mysterious guide of death, leading Gauguin toward his final days, and encouraging the artist to reflect on his life. Another figure is Gauguin himself, as a child. The child version of Gauguin enters into the book numerous times, and represents a desire to find freedom.
The book addresses Gauguin’s life in general, as well as specific moments that have contributed to his fame. One such example that Dori expounds upon is the origin of his famous painting, “Manao Tupapau,” translated to, “The Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch,” which is related to the mystical Tahitian figure of death, mentioned above.
Lynette Porter on the PopMatters website wrote: “The journey to Gauguin’s “other world” is well worth taking, and even readers familiar with the facts of Gauguin’s life should gain a fresh perspective after viewing this “savage” artist from the inside out.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2017, Sarah Hunter, review of Gauguin: The Other World, p. 33.
Publishers Weekly, March 13, 2017, review of Gauguin, p. 67.
Xpress Reviews, February 24, 2017, Lucy Roehrig, review of Gauguin.
ONLINE
Paste, https://www.pastemagazine.com (May 19, 2017), Hillary Brown, review of Gauguin.
PopMatters, http://www.popmatters.com (May 22, 2017), Lynnette Porter, review of Gaugin.*
Fabrizio Dori is a comics artist. He lives in Milan.
Gauguin: The Other World
Sarah Hunter
113.14 (Mar. 15, 2017): p33.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Gauguin: The Other World.
By Fabrizio Dori. Illus. by the author. Tr. by Edward Gauvin.
Mar. 2017.144p. SelfMadeHero, paper, $19.95 (9781910593271). 741.5.
Postimpressionist painter Gauguin helped usher in a new era of modern art, and this haunting graphic novel beautifully evokes his life and artistic drive. The story opens as Gauguin is on his deathbed, where he is greeted by a hollow-eyed god of death, who asks him questions about his life. Gauguin waxes on about his artistic mission, the isolation he sought in Tahiti, his obsession with learning the spiritual secrets of his adopted home, his frustrations with finding appreciation and especially money, and the limits of his ability to truly love, since all of his attention was for his art. At times, he sounds like a petulant child, and fittingly, among the many gods and ghosts he meets, a pallid, shrieking youth occasionally appears and makes demands of him. The dreamlike nature of the story line is gorgeously borne out in Dori's painted panels--he brilliantly echoes Gauguin's iconic style, from the stylized figures and imagery to the rich, saturated color. Art lovers will appreciate this enigmatic, unsparing foray into the beleaguered painter's psyche, delivered in an arresting, gaze-worthy package.--Sarah Hunter
Hunter, Sarah
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hunter, Sarah. "Gauguin: The Other World." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2017, p. 33. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA490998487&it=r&asid=b01279af125157676ea8bbb70146fb2c. Accessed 7 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490998487
Gauguin: The Other World
264.11 (Mar. 13, 2017): p67.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
* Gauguin: The Other World
Fabrizio Dori. SelfMadeHero, $19.95 trade paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-910593-27-1
Dori pays tribute to the life and work of Gauguin without diminishing the artist's sometimes unsympathetic character in this fabulously illustrated work. Dori concentrates on Gauguin's life in the "other world" of Polynesia, where he created his most memorable paintings and eventually died, while also sketching his life away from Tahiti. Interwoven with the more realistic biography are flashes of Gauguin traveling into the mythological world of Tahiti, in mountaintop dreams and nighttime travels with a figure of death. Doris images range from the lush palette of the tropics to the more pallid colors of France, mixing panels with a texture like oil paintings for Gauguin's waking life with etchings in shades of brown and black for the gods and spirits. Doris Gauguin is a man driven by his art, "the tyrant living inside," with little love for those around him. A few final pages by art writer Celine Delavaux add context to this marvelous portrait. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Gauguin: The Other World." Publishers Weekly, 13 Mar. 2017, p. 67. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485971659&it=r&asid=15b60025f0dba824de848027138f30d3. Accessed 7 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485971659
Dori, Fabrizio. Gauguin: The Other World
Lucy Roehrig
(Feb. 24, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
[STAR] Dori, Fabrizio. Gauguin: The Other World. SelfMadeHero. (Art Masters). Mar. 2017. 144p. ISBN 9781910593271. pap. $19.95. ART/BIOG
Independent UK publisher SelfMadeHero produces some of the most creative and beautifully drawn comics around, and this latest addition to the popular "Art Masters" series is no exception. Here, Italian artist Dori (Uno in diviso) captures the early impressionistic and postimpressionistic or primitivist painting style of French artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). He chronicles Gauguin's striking yet commercially unsuccessful art; his travels from Europe to Tahiti, where his avant-garde style was born; his various relationships with women, many of whom inspired his works; and his life as an artist never fully appreciated in his lifetime. Yet beyond being a biography, Dori's study weaves in the mythology of the islands that influenced the painter's passions, rendered with sumptuous colors. Engrossing from start to finish, this account will draw the attention of anyone interested in the trials and tribulations of a flawed yet highly influential innovator.
Verdict Suitable for both teens and adults, this book deserves high praise for introducing readers to an artist who paved the way for such luminaries as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, and Henri Matisse.--Lucy Roehrig, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Roehrig, Lucy. "Dori, Fabrizio. Gauguin: The Other World." Xpress Reviews, 24 Feb. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA489080914&it=r&asid=ad5442d10c51fa8574e04e88fe3aae4a. Accessed 7 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A489080914
Fabrizio Dori's Gauguin: The Other World Finds Dreamy Symbolism in its Unpleasant Subject
By Hillary Brown | May 19, 2017 | 11:00am
Art by Fabrizio Dori
Comics Reviews Paul Gauguin
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Writer/Artist: Fabrizio Dori
Translator: Edward Gauvin
Publisher: SelfMadeHero
Release Date: March 14, 2017
Following last year’s Munch by Steffen Kverneland, SelfMadeHero has released the next entry in its line of artists’ biographies in comics form. Each one, whether on Picasso, Van Gogh or Dali, comes from a different cartoonist with a different approach; Fabrizio Dori doesn’t seem to have been obsessed with his subject in the way that Kverneland was, and this book is slimmer than its predecessor, but the result is still readable and interesting. He starts from a defensive posture: if most people know anything about Gauguin other than that he spent some time in Tahiti and got a late artistic start in life, it’s that he was a jerk with an unpleasant personality who abandoned his family to shack up with young island women. It’s not entirely untrue! He and Van Gogh lived together for a while, and there’s a theory that Gauguin was directly responsible for the other painter’s mutilation. Even if that’s not factual, they fought furiously, and those disagreements with others were common for Gauguin. So how do you keep people reading?
Dori finds a partial solution in rendering his pages in the same kind of lush color Gauguin used in his paintings, making a book that feels like being inside the titular artist’s gallery. Depending on the setting and the time period represented, he varies the style to incorporate a cooler or a more vibrant palette, a more impressionist or post-impressionist approach. Slightly less successfully, he crafts a story that draws on the Symbolist aspect of Gauguin’s artistic practice. He draws on Tahitian mythology to present the artist’s journey toward death, escorted by a mystical and obscure figure who encourages him to reflect on his life.
Gauguin: The Other World Interior Art by Fabrizio Dori
The book feels a little slight, even as it contains interesting nuggets of information, like the genesis of his famed painting “Manao Tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch),” which also supplied the figure mentioned above. What, exactly, is happening isn’t very clear, but it rarely is in Symbolist art, which often avoided straightforward, naturalistic depictions in favor of representing universal truths through evocative, dreamy shorthand. The point is not an obvious lesson or a one-to-one allegorical correspondence, but, rather, a kind of spiritual feeling awakened in the viewer, and Dori is somewhat successful at creating those kinds of emotions. It all makes for a better read than a standard list of dates and actions, and the pages are undeniably lovely. Whether the approach would work for a different subject is up for debate.
Gauguin: The Other World Interior Art by Fabrizio Dori
The Journey to Paul Gauguin’s Other World Is Well Worth Taking
by Lynnette Porter
22 May 2017
Graphic novel Gauguin: The Other World traverses the tropical landscapes and surreal mindscape of self-titled “savage” artist Paul Gauguin.
Gauguin: The Other World
Fabrizio Dori
(SelfMadeHero)
US: Mar 2017
Amazon
Although Paul Gauguin was born in Europe, grew up in South America, and traveled the world as a sailor, he declared that his “happiness [is] found elsewhere, that belongs to another world”. Gauguin’s “other world” was Tahiti, a tropical paradise to and from which he escaped; he was a man forever seeking something new and an artist determined to shock European sensibilities while garnering fame.
However, author-illustrator Fabrizio Dori’s graphic novel Gauguin: The Other World takes readers on a journey far beyond Tahiti. In addition to the Maori-cultured paradise, other locales important to Gauguin’s development as an artist, such as Paris, are interspersed with scenes featuring the artist’s wife in Denmark or his friends in Brittany. The strangest but most effective sections of this beautifully drawn biography allow readers to travel through a realm of spirits.
The surreal interactions between Gauguin and island gods or the living and ghosts of the past (including the artist’s inner child, who perpetually seeks freedom) suggest why the artist chose themes for his paintings, not only how he went about the process of creating art. What could have been simply a weird approach to understanding Gauguin’s self-absorbed self-promotion as an artist and his wanderlust as a traveler instead becomes an immersive journey inside Gauguin’s mind. For readers, exploring the “other world” of Gauguin’s mindscape is critical to understanding the tropical landscapes that provided inspiration for the artist’s synthesis of artistic styles and his search for a new way of viewing the natural world and art.
Gauguin employed the word “savage” to describe his choice of subject matter, which differed greatly from what his colleagues and mentors were painting in Paris. He also applied this term to his mind and his untrained approach to painting. It’s a word frequently used by Dori and Céline Delavaux, whose biographical essays are included at the end of the graphic novel. One of the three closing essays, “Gauguin: Modern and Savage”, explains that, just as Gauguin bridged several late 19th and early 20th century art movements (e.g., Impressionism, Modernism), he represents what “savage” meant to each century. Gauguin reflects the 19th century interest in the exotic (at least what seemed exotic to Europeans) and the untamed natural world. His interest in Maori culture and desire to document it for Europeans is but one example of this philosophical trend.
The 20th century interest in the self—the natural, uneducated part of each person—is explained in Gauguin’s autobiographical letters to family and friends. In these letters, Gauguin expresses his desire to be different. As this book illustrates, the artist also had the ability to create a unique public persona that startled conventional Europeans. Although the style of his art and the flamboyance of his post-Tahiti Paris studio—complete with Maori artifacts, island-themed decor, and a pet monkey—
attracted a great deal of attention, his paintings received the most critical acclaim only after his death.
The essays summarize Gauguin as a “fearless artist and flawed human being”, a man setting himself apart from other artists by acting as “half dandy, half noble savage”. He could never completely feel comfortable with his family, the Danish business community (when he worked as a stockbroker), his artistic colleagues, native Tahitians, or island colonialists. Instead of focusing on all that Gauguin was not, Dori beautifully illustrates what made him, for better or worse, a haunted human being and an artist who ultimately influenced the likes of Pablo Picasso.
The graphic novel is structured in five sections following the introduction: Spirit of the Dead Watching, Everlasting Night, The Delightful Land, The Gods, and The Day of Evil Ghosts. As can be inferred from these titles, the surreal is as prominent as the real in this biography. Some section titles, such as “Spirit of the Dead Watching” and “The Delightful Land”, are titles of Gauguin’s paintings. The book concludes with three essays providing a traditional prose biography that supports and expands the scope of the earlier illustrations. Together, they form an intriguing look at Gauguin’s creativity and motivations while covering milestones in his life.
Gauguin: The Other World is similar to the five other books in the ever-expanding Art Masters series published in English by SelfMadeHero. (This graphic novel, for example, was translated from French.) The series began in 2015 with Vincent (Barbara Stok) and Munch (Steffen Kveneland) and continued in 2016 with Pablo (J. Birment and C. Oubrerie) and Dalí (Baudoin). Gauguin maintains the series’ tradition of showing an artist’s connection to other famous painters who just happen to be the subject of their own book in this series. Picasso, for example, mentions being inspired by Gauguin, but Van Gogh has a much more personal connection. He and Gauguin briefly lived and worked together in Arles and dreamed of establishing an artist colony.
Of course, in Vincent, the most famous incident to come from this collaboration is Van Gogh losing part of an ear. Although one of the Gauguin essays briefly mentions this occurrence, it is understandably downplayed in Gauguin’s biography. The connections reiterated in this series can provide additional insights into individual lives while helping readers understand the historic links among artists and art movements.
The series also successfully blends the art of a current artist, in this case Fabrizio Dori, with the style(s) of a famous artist from the past. Dori, for example, includes Gauguin’s painting “Spirit of the Dead Watching”, but the illustration designed to fit within a page of the graphic novel is a combination of Gauguin’s subject and style and Dori’s interpretation of them. This blending creates a unique visual experience; Gauguin’s painting is immediately recognizable, but Dori especially emphasizes the Spirit of the Dead in the corner. Later in the novel, this spirit guides Gauguin through flashbacks of his past relationships.
Other strengths of the Art Masters series are the inventive approaches to biography; the books illustrate an artist’s personal flaws while highlighting the passion in those who dedicate their lives to art. Gauguin, according to Dori, enjoyed being a martyr for art. He expected to live in poverty and to rely financially on friends and family from time to time. Like other artists who became famous posthumously, Gauguin did not make much money as an artist but felt compelled to paint instead of returning to a more lucrative profession.
Also like other artists, Gauguin succumbed to addictions beyond art, in his case alcohol and morphine. Dori dramatically illustrates Gauguin’s morphine abuse. Within a dark panel on a right page a red-eyed creature lurks in the woods. Its similarity to the Grim Reaper is undeniable. The next three drawings increasingly zoom in to an extremely close view of the creature’s unfocused red eyes. When readers turn the page, the first drawing is an eye-like circle against a blood-red background. The next drawings, like a camera, pull back to reveal first a Morphine label and then a tube and syringe. When the wraith visits Gauguin, the symbolism of the artwork on these pages is complete: Gauguin’s fondness for morphine is killing him. Gauguin poetically describes his flirtation with death as “the shadow that accompanies men all their lives,” but the effects of morphine on his body and his art are far more disturbing.
Although such dark themes are emphasized through shadowy illustrations with little color, Dori does not let readers forget Gauguin’s infatuation with tropical islands. He enriches the story of the artist’s life in Tahiti by using vibrant colors and featuring landscapes of lush green vegetation and perfect blue skies. Because Dori does not present only a “blue sky” portrait of Gauguin, readers gain a deeper understanding of the artist’s strengths as well as his frailties and failures.
Because this biography is captivatingly illustrated and uses “camera-movement” techniques that pull readers into the story, they can engage with this format perhaps more fully than with the prose in a traditional biographical tome. The journey to Gauguin’s “other world” is well worth taking, and even readers familiar with the facts of Gauguin’s life should gain a fresh perspective after viewing this “savage” artist from the inside out.
Gauguin: The Other World
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