Lecture | Gauguin and Polynesia: A New Perspective
Distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas joins the annual Shartle Lecture Series to discuss the works of Paul Gauguin and Oceania. Thomas is the author of Gauguin and Polynesia which offers a fresh view on the artist, not from the perspective of European art history, but from the contemporary vantage point of the region—Oceania—to which he so famously relocated. Presented in connection with the exhibition Gauguin in the World, this lecture foregrounds the deep eclecticism of Gauguin’s work, and his representation—alongside enigmatic and symbolic imagery—of Polynesia’s colonial modernity.
Plan Your Visit
- Free with Museum admission.
- The lecture takes place in the Lynn Wyatt Theater in the Kinder Building. The exhibition is located in the Beck Building.
- Parking Information | Museum Hours | MFAH Campus Map
About the Speaker
Nicholas Thomas first visited the Pacific in 1984 to undertake research in the Marquesas Islands. He has travelled extensively across the region, and written on Indigenous histories, empire, and art. His books include Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire (2012), which was awarded the Wolfson History Prize. Oceania, which Thomas co-curated with Peter Brunt for the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris in 2018–19, was acclaimed as a landmark exhibition. He is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
The Ruth K. Shartle Lecture Series is made possible by a generous grant from The Brown Foundation, Inc.
“Gauguin in the World” is organized by Art Exhibitions Australia; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
This exhibition is made possible in part by a grant from:
Lead foundation underwriting is provided by:
Lead Corporate Underwriter:
Generous support is provided by:
Margaret Alkek Williams
Jerold B. Katz Foundation
M. D. Anderson Foundation
The Radoff Family
The Favrot Fund
Gail, Louis, Veronika, and Marc Adler
Polly and Murry Bowden
Nancy Pollok Guinee
Phoebe and Bobby Tudor
Andrius Kontrimas/Sheppard Mullin
Ann G. Trammell
Official Promotional Partner:
All Learning and Interpretation programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive generous support from H-E-B; Institute of Museum and Library Services; Sempra Foundation; the Brown Foundation, Inc.; the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; the John M. O'Quinn Foundation; the Joe Barnhart Foundation; the Cockrell Family Fund; the CFP Foundation; Macey and Harry Reasoner; the Texas Commission on the Arts; and the Junior League of Houston, Inc.
Endowment funds are provided by the Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest; Caroline Wiess Law; Windgate Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Fondren Foundation; BMC Software, Inc.; the Wallace Foundation; the Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Medha and Shashank Karve; Virginia and Ira Jackson; Jesse H. Jones II; the CFP Foundation; the Favrot Fund; gifts in memory of John Wynne; Neiman Marcus Youth Arts Education; gifts in memory of Peter Lotz; and gifts in honor of Beth Schneider.