Walking through the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, home to dozens of Van Goghs, Cezannes, and Gauguins, is the equivalent of a crash course in post-impressionist painting. So it’s something of a coup to have the museum’s curator, Stéphane Guégan, in town to speak about the new Gauguin and Polynesia exhibit on display at Seattle Art Museum. Guégan has written extensively on the 19th-century French contemporaries—including the aptly named Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay—and can offer a new perspective on the complex connection between Gauguin and his tropical muse.
While tickets to the talk are sold out, a free simulcast of the event will be shown at the Nordstrom Lecture Hall at SAM. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
For those who haven’t seen Gauguin and Polynesia yet, SAM will hand out free tickets (typically $18–$23) to the exhibit this Saturday, March 10; just be one of the first 400 people queued up at the Hammering Man at 10am. Saturday is Community Day, so the museum will host Tahitian drumming acts and Polynesian dance classes all day—see the event list below.
SAM Talks: Stéphane Guégan on Paul Gauguin
Mar 8 at 7, Plestcheeff Auditorium at Seattle Art Museum, sold out
Simulcast of ‘SAM Talks: Stéphane Guégan on Paul Gauguin’
Mar 8 at 7, Nordstrom Lecture Hall at Seattle Art Museum, free
Seattle Art Museum Community Day
March 10, SAM Downtown, free–$23 (Gauguin admission)
10:30, 11, 1:45, 2: Te Fare O Tamatoa (Tahitian dance and drumming)
11 & 1: Family-friendly tour of Gauguin and Polynesia
Noon: Na Hanu ‘O Ku’uleialoha (Polynesian dance lessons)
12:30: Rogue, a French-inspired cabaret band