Wild Thing by Sue Prideaux
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024 A vital re-examination of the trailblazing and controversial artist Paul Gauguin - and the first full biography in over thirty years - written by the award-winning author of I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Nietzsche. *Gorgeously illustrated with 70 full-colour images* 'Scintillating.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Phenomenal.' PROSPECT 'A vivid, revisionist picture.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Witty and bold.' LUCY HUGHES-HALLETT Paul Gauguin is chiefly known as the giant of post-Impressionist painting whose bold colours and compositions rocked the Western art world. It is less well known that he was a stockbroker in Paris and that after the 1882 financial crash he struggled to sustain his artistry, and worked as a tarpaulin salesman in Copenhagen, a canal digger in Panama City, and a journalist exposing the injustices of French colonial rule in Tahiti. In Wild Thing, the award-winning biographer Sue Prideaux re-examines the adventurous and complicated life of the artist. She illuminates the people, places and ideas that shaped his vision: his privileged upbringing in Peru and rebellious youth in France; the galvanising energy of the Paris art scene; meeting Mette, the woman who he would marry; formative encounters with Vincent van Gogh and August Strindberg; and the ceaseless draw of French Polynesia. Prideaux conjures Gauguin's visual exuberance, his creative epiphanies, his fierce words and his flaws with acuity and sensitivity. Drawing from a wealth of new material and access to the artist's family, this myth-busting work invites us to see Gauguin anew.
Sue Prideaux's first biography Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream (2005) won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Strindberg: A Life (2012) won the Duff Cooper Prize, and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Nietzsche (2018) was awarded the Hawthornden Prize, longlisted for the Cundhill History Prize and Rathbones Folio Prize, shortlisted for the Historical Writers' Association Non-Fiction Crown and was The Times Biography of the Year.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780571365937 |
| ISBN 10 | 0571365930 |
| Title | Wild Thing |
| Author | Sue Prideaux |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber |
| Year published | 2024-09-12 |
| Number of pages | 416 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |