iNy Carlsberg GlyptotekVesterbro
Gauguin & Kihara – First Impressions
The Glyptotek's world-class Gauguin collection in dialogue with Yuki Kihara's video, where Samoan and Tahitian voices respond to his paintings.
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"Who cares about accuracy!!" Gauguin declared, and the panel in Yuki Kihara's video takes him at his word. A host and guests from Sāmoa's fa'afafine and fa'atama communities are shown reproductions of his Tahiti paintings, two of them owned by this museum, and give their first impressions. Soon Gauguin fades out and they are telling their own stories about the people he painted.
Around the video are the Glyptotek's 58 Gauguins: paintings, woodcarvings, drawings and ceramics in the Henning Larsen building. They follow him from Paris and Copenhagen to Brittany, Arles, Martinique, Tahiti and the Marquesas, with the colonial setting of each stop. You hear the panel weigh a theory researchers share, that some of his figures are Māhū, people of more than one gender whom missionaries banned.
It suits visitors who know the colours and want the arguments around them. Kihara made the work as five 13-minute episodes. Entry is included in museum admission (DKK 150, DKK 135 online, under-18s free), and Thursdays run until 21:00.
Editor's pick
In Yuki Kihara's video, a Sāmoan talk-show panel of fa'afafine and fa'atama guests react to Gauguin's Tahiti paintings, then tell their own stories. Around it hang the Glyptotek's 58 Gauguins.
Look for
The talk show
Look for Kihara's host and fa'afafine panel reacting to Gauguin's Tahiti paintings, two of them from this museum, then drifting into stories about his models.
Skaters in Frederiksberg Gardens
Gauguin's 1884 painting of skaters in a Copenhagen park, from his stop in the city before Brittany and the South Seas.
The Breton double vase
Gauguin as potter: a Breton girl, sheep and geese worked into unglazed stoneware in 1886-87.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Skip if
You want Gauguin purely for the colour: the show puts his colonial travels and Sāmoan critics front and centre.
With kids
Under-18s get in free.
Also at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- Gauguin & Kihara – First ImpressionsCourtesy of Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
- What's the Big Rush?Christopher Egeberg Flip / Museum of Copenhagen
- What the BLOXPhoto : Claus Troelsgaard
- Cities for PeopleCourtesy of Danish Architecture Center
- Ny Carlsberg GlyptotekDaderot / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Museum of CopenhagenLauren Friedman / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- National Museum of DenmarkIb Rasmussen, via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- Danish Architecture CenterLeif Jørgensen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Christiansborg PalaceJulian Herzog / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0