Friday, December 12, 2014
Where Do We Come From? Who Are We? Where Are We Going?
One of Paul Gauguin’s
last pictures is called “Where Do We Come From? Who Are We? Where Are We Going?”
Even without this title it would be a perfect Advent picture, even though it is
not set in snowy France or Germany, but in brilliantly sunny Tahiti, Gauguin’s
second home. On this wide canvas the painter asks some of the most fundamental
questions of human existence: How is it that we are alive? What makes us who we
are? And what is our destiny, especially after death? We don’t have records of
what Gauguin thought of all these matters, beyond the painting itself, but we
know that when he set off for Tahiti he had arsenic in his pocket and intended
to kill himself. Over the course of a few weeks he changed his mind, and
painted this piece instead.
On the right, we see
three women, and next to them a baby. They are contemplating, but also
participating, in what many people consider the most religious experience of
human existence, childbirth. An agnostic friend of mine once told me that he
knew there was a God when he saw his wife giving birth.
Further toward the middle
you see women chatting, a man pensive, and a youth plucking the fruit of a
tree. A child sits in the ground, also eating a fruit, surrounded by a goat and
cats. It is an almost pastoral scene of harmony and peace, all bathed in
tropical light. Somehow Gauguin captures the atmosphere of Eden, and seems to
imply that this is really “who we are”: beings longing for shalom, peace, the
good life. Finally, on the far left,
an old woman, pale and grey-haired, prepares to die. The cycle of life seems
complete, and death is the end of it, or is it? The white puffin bird seems to
indicate an afterlife, however vague and ill-described. We also see a blue
deity, gently over-viewing the whole scene, as if all that we are and do happens
under the watchful eye of God.
Whether or not you like
post-impressionistic art, the question Gauguin asks is of deep import, and
Advent is traditionally a season when Christians ponder it actively. November
was the month to remember those we have lost, our loved ones, and during the
few weeks before Christmas we ask ourselves: what really makes us happy? What
makes us human? I death and decay our final destiny? And where is this world
headed? Maybe you also want to draw a picture?
# posted by tino @ Friday, December 12, 2014 
