Day #1 - Art for Lent: Paul Gauguin's "Where do we come from?" #Lent2016

ART + RELIGION
By Aaron Rosen

Paul Gauguin, "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?," 1897-98, oil on canvas, 139.1 x 374.6 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Painted in Tahiti as a sort of last testament before a failed suicide attempt, Gauguin considered this work his masterpiece: in his words, 'a philosophical work...comparable to the Gospels'. Comparing it to a fresco, he explained that it was a story of spiritual and chronological progression, from the infant on the far right to the elderly woman on the left. In a fusion of mythologies, a blue idol mirros the central figure, seemingly reaching for a forbidden fruit. [page 10]

Lent is the annual Christian preparation for Easter. "Today's Art for Lent2016" features artworks that illustrate the Christian "Battle between Carnival and Lent."