Censored Gauguin May Get Makeover
Paul Gauguin, Te Fare Amu , 1895 or 1897. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, promised gift to Brooklyn Museum of Art Martin Bailey, writing in The Art Newspaper , reports on the history and possible future of Henry Pearlman's Gauguin relief Te Fare Amu ( now on view at LACMA ). It appears that Pearlman himself was the one who "censored" the female nude's genitals, in order to get the painted wood carving past U.S. Customs. The left side of the panel shows a crouching nude woman with pale green skin, red lips, a red nipple, and a line of unexplained red "buttons" along her spine. Originally her vulva was painted a bright red as well. X-rays show this was painted over with green to be less noticeable. The relief had been shown without controversy in its original state in France, but at the time of Pearlman's purchase, about 1955, U.S. Customs were known to be prudish. They had after all banned Joyce's Ulysses . According to best practices, overpaint...
