Oviri
Details
After Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
Oviri
with raised initials on the side of the base PGO, stamped and numbered on the back Valsuani cire perdue, 3/12 and inscribed with raised letters on the front of the base Oviri
bronze with black patina
30in. (75cm.) high
Conceived in stone circa 1894-1895. This bronze version cast by Valsuani between 1959 and 1968 from a plaster belonging to Madame Huc de Monfried.
Oviri
with raised initials on the side of the base PGO, stamped and numbered on the back Valsuani cire perdue, 3/12 and inscribed with raised letters on the front of the base Oviri
bronze with black patina
30in. (75cm.) high
Conceived in stone circa 1894-1895. This bronze version cast by Valsuani between 1959 and 1968 from a plaster belonging to Madame Huc de Monfried.
Literature
H. Castets, Gauguin, Revue universelle, vol.III, no.96, Oct. 145,
1903, p.536
J. de Rotochamp, Paul Gauguin: 1848-1903, Paris 1925, pp.194 & 197 C. Kunstler, Gauguin, peintre maudit, Paris 1937, p.57 (stone version illustrated)
A. Vollard, Souvenirs d'un marchand de tableaux, Paris 1948, p.201 M. Malingue, Gauguin, Monaco 1943, p.151
C. Gray, Sculpture and Ceramics of Paul Gauguin, Baltimore 1963, no.113 (stone version illustrated pp.245-257)
Christopher Gray has described this sculpture as the one "marking the highest achievement of Gauguin as a ceramicist" (op cit. p.64). Gray writes that Oviri "...is indeed a Goddess...She is woman the destroyer, the sphinx of the Oedipus legend, and Kali the destroyer, avatar of Parvati the creative mother. The wolf, the savage killer, is here the symbol of mother, while the woman Oviri, in all her exotic voluptuousness, is the symbol of death." (ibid.,p.65) The exhibition of Oviri at the Société Nationale in 1895 created a furor. A specially founded cast was erected on March 29 1973 on Gauguin's tomb in the cemetry of Atuana by the Fondation Singer-Polignac.
1903, p.536
J. de Rotochamp, Paul Gauguin: 1848-1903, Paris 1925, pp.194 & 197 C. Kunstler, Gauguin, peintre maudit, Paris 1937, p.57 (stone version illustrated)
A. Vollard, Souvenirs d'un marchand de tableaux, Paris 1948, p.201 M. Malingue, Gauguin, Monaco 1943, p.151
C. Gray, Sculpture and Ceramics of Paul Gauguin, Baltimore 1963, no.113 (stone version illustrated pp.245-257)
Christopher Gray has described this sculpture as the one "marking the highest achievement of Gauguin as a ceramicist" (op cit. p.64). Gray writes that Oviri "...is indeed a Goddess...She is woman the destroyer, the sphinx of the Oedipus legend, and Kali the destroyer, avatar of Parvati the creative mother. The wolf, the savage killer, is here the symbol of mother, while the woman Oviri, in all her exotic voluptuousness, is the symbol of death." (ibid.,p.65) The exhibition of Oviri at the Société Nationale in 1895 created a furor. A specially founded cast was erected on March 29 1973 on Gauguin's tomb in the cemetry of Atuana by the Fondation Singer-Polignac.