Staff painstakingly move one of Gauguin’s most famous works, Tahitian women (Femmes de Tahiti) into position. Photo: NGA.
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra isn’t allowed to put a finger on how much its largest exhibition is worth, but it’s “several billions of dollars”, according to director Nick Mitzevich.
Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao shows off masterpieces by famous French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin and is now open to the public until 7 October.
Gauguin was born in Paris in 1848 under the full name of Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin. Chances are you’ll know him for his vibrant paintings of life in Tahiti where he moved during his later years to escape revolutionary uprisings and financial struggles in France.
He died in 1903, aged 54, having created thousands of paintings and worked with some of the best including Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cézanne, and leaving a controversial legacy.
During a media preview on Wednesday, Mr Mitzevich said it was the first time Gauguin had come to Canberra for “one simple reason”.
“There’s not one collection in the world that has lots of his work, so that means we have to work to bring them all together.”
National Gallery of Australia (NGA) director Nick Mitzevich hopes thousands of people from all over the country will attend the exhibition. Photo: NGA.
The NGA worked with Art Exhibitions Australia to pull together more than 140 of his finest works from up to 68 public and private collections worldwide, including those at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh, National Gallery of Art in Washington, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.
The long and tedious process was led by curator Henri Loyrette from the Louvre in Paris.
“We start with an eminent curator who has the respect of the world,” Mr Mitzevich said.
“And then over five years, systematically visit all of those galleries and convince them to lend their works.”
Three Tahitians (Trois tahitiens), 1899. Photo: NGA.
But even when all the pieces were lined up, it still wasn’t plain sailing. It took about 50 courier trips to bring the works to Canberra.
“The principal [cause of damage] is vibration,” Mr Mitzevich explained.
“It’s the killer to the painting because vibration causes things to fall off, and when you’ve got millions of dollars worth of paintings, the last thing you want is anything to fall off.
“But I can say that after dozens of courier trips to bring the works here, they were investigated under microscope and found to be in incredible condition.”
Mr Mitzevich remains confident it will all be worth it and expects similar success to the last time the NGA teamed up with Art Exhibitions Australia to deliver Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery in 2021.
This included 61 paintings by some of Europe’s most revered artists, including Botticelli, Titian, Rembrandt, Vermeer, El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Turner, Constable, Van Dyck, Gainsborough, Renoir, Cézanne, Monet, Gauguin and Van Gogh.
“It was such a precarious time for our community and we weren’t sure if people would come to see that exhibition, but did they ever,” Mr Mitzevich said.
There’s more to Gauguin than paintings. Photo: NGA.
“More than 200,000 people came to Canberra, and more than 80 per cent of the audience drove or flew here from all across the country.”
Mr Mitzevich hopes Gauguin’s work will draw a similar number of visitors to “see the work of an artist they’ve never seen before”.
“We mount these sorts of exhibitions for one reason, and that’s to give the Australian public something they wouldn’t normally see.”
Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao is open every day at the NGA from 10 am to 5 pm until Monday, 7 October. Book tickets online.
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