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''Oviri'' ((タヒチ語:Savage'' or ''wild))〔Maurer, 162〕 is a 1894 ceramic sculpture by French artist Paul Gauguin, the original cast is in the Musée d'Orsay. Gauguin shows her with long pale hair and large wild eyes. In Tahitian mythology Oviri was the goddess of mourning. Gauguin shows her either smothering or embracing a wolf with her feet, as she tightly clutches another wolf cub in her arms. Art historians have presented multiple interpretations of the work; usually that he intended it as an epithet to reinforce his self-image as a "civilised savage". Tahitian goddesses of her era had passed from folk memory by 1894, yet Gauguin romanticises the island's past as he reaches towards more ancient sources, including an Assyrian relief of a 'master of animals' type and Majapahit mummies. Other possible influences include preserved skulls from the Marquesas Islands, figures found at Borobudur, and a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in central Java. Gauguin made three casts in 1894, each in partially glazed stoneware. Several other copies exist in plaster or bronze. His sale of the casts were not successful, and at a low financial and personal ebb he asked that for one of the reproductions to act as a marker for his grave. A cast was not placed there until 1973. There are only three other surviving comments of his on the figure: on an 1895 presentation mount of two impressions of a woodcut of the ''Oviri'' figure he made to Stéphane Mallarmé where he called the figure a strange and cruel enigma; in an 1897 letter to Ambroise Vollard where he referred to it as ''La Tueuse'' ("The Murderess"); and in a c. 1899 drawing where he appends an inscription referencing Honoré de Balzac's novel ''Séraphîta''.〔Landy, 242, 244–46〕 ''Oviri'' was exhibited at the 1906 Salon d'Automne (no. 57)〔"(1906 Salon d'automne )". Exposés au Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, 1906. Retrieved 29 August 2015〕 where it influenced Pablo Picasso, who based one of the figures in ''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'' on it.〔Frèches-Thory, 372–73〕 ==Background== Gauguin was foremost a painter; he came to ceramics around 1886, when he was taught by the French sculptor and ceramist Ernest Chaplet. They had been introduced by Félix Bracquemond〔Campbell, 224〕 who, inspired by the new French art pottery, was experimenting with the form. During that winter of 1886–87, Gauguin visited Chaplet's workshop at Vaugirard, where they collaborated on stoneware pots with applied figures or ornamental fragments and multiple handles.〔"(French Art Pottery )". Metropolitan Museum of Art timeline. Retrieved 11 October 2015〕 Gauguin first visited Tahiti in 1891, and attracted by the beauty of Tahitian women undertook a set of sculptural mask-like portraits on paper. They evoke both melancholy and death, and conjure the state of ''faaturuma'' (brooding or melancholy); imagery and moods later used in the Oviri ceramic.〔"(Important and Rare Paul Gauguin Sculpture Up for Auction at Sotheby's )". sgallery.net. April 29, 2008. Retrieved 22 February 2009〕 Gauguin's first wood carvings in Tahiti were with a guava wood that quickly crumbled and have not survived. He completed ''Oviri'' in the winter of 1894, during his return from Tahiti, and submitted it to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts 1895 ''salon'' opening in April the following year.〔"(Oviri )". Musée d'Orsay. Retrieved 23 August 2015〕 There are two versions of what ensued: Charles Morice claimed in 1920 that Gauguin was "literally expelled" from the exhibition; in 1937 Ambroise Vollard wrote that the piece was admitted only when Chaplet threatened to withdraw his own works in protest.〔Frèches-Thory, 372〕 According to Danielsson, Gauguin was keen to increase his public exposure and availed of this opportunity by writing an outraged letter to ''Le Soir'', bemoaning the state of modern ceramics.〔Danielsson, 170〕 At the outset of 1897, Vollard addressed a letter to Gauguin about the possibility of casting his sculptures in bronze. Gauguin's response centered on ''Oviri'': I believe that my large statue in ceramic, the ''Tueuse'' ("The Murderess"), is an exceptional piece such as no ceramist has made until now and that, in addition, it would look very well cast in bronze (without retouching and without patina). In this way the buyer would not only have the ceramic piece itself, but also a bronze edition with which to make money.〔(Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde ). Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications, 2006, ISBN 1-58839-195-7〕 Art historian Christopher Gray mentions three plaster casts, the fissured surfaces of which suggest that they were taken from a prior undocumented wood carving no longer extant. One was given to Daniel Monfreid and now belongs to the Musée départemental Maurice Denis "The Priory" in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Another version in plaster, with the surface finish of wood, was kept by Gustave Fayet, and subsequently formed part of the collection of his son, Léon. The third version was kept by the artist who made the casts.〔"(After Paul Gauguin, ''Oviri'', bronze, lot 317, sale 1723 )". Christie's, Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale, 9 November 2006. Retrieved 11 October 2015〕〔Gray, 245–247〕 A number of bronzes were produced, including the version placed on Gauguin's grave at Atuona, cast by the Foundation Singer-Poligna and erected 29 March 1973.〔〔Frèches-Thory, 369〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oviri (Gauguin)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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