Should the National Gallery of Australia be staging a major Paul Gauguin exhibition?

At first glance, the question may appear a little strange. Gauguin (1848-1903) is a hugely significant figure in most European constructs of modern art and a key artist in any discussion of French neo-primitivism, post-impressionism and symbolism. His paintings at auction realise staggering sums of money: in 2022 one changed hands for more than US$105 million.

But the ethical case against Gauguin is that he was a violent, fist-swinging thug, a paedophile and a serial rapist.

Gauguin was a “sex tourist”, who dumped his wife and five children in poverty in Europe and took up residence in French Polynesia, where he married three native children, the youngest 13, the others 14.

He had numerous children with them and infected some of them with syphilis, before he died aged 54. These “child brides” served as models in many of his paintings that took the form of exotic, erotic fantasies.

Curator and art historian Ashley Remer sums up the case against Gauguin:

From a museum perspective, choosing to showcase men like Gauguin does, in its own way, support rape culture […] [Gauguin] purposefully and consistently made the choice to exploit and assault young girls.

The English art critic Alistair Sooke bluntly describes him as a “19th-Century Harvey Weinstein”.

Gauguin wrote of his Tahitian women........

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