In 2019, the National Gallery held an exhibition of Paul Gauguin’s portraits that provoked uproar. Was Gauguin not a French colonialist who spread syphilis to underage girls throughout the islands of the South Seas? The London show was caught in the crosshairs of cancel culture and there were calls for his paintings to be burned.
I have always loved Gauguin’s pictures. Having just written I Am Dynamite!, a biography of controversial philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and feeling a strong sympathy with #MeToo, I couldn’t live in the dishonest and hypocritical position of loving the paintings and hating the man. I embarked on research.
