ArtistNorwegian-Danish
Gauguin, Paul René
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Paul René Gauguin was born on 27 February 1911 in Copenhagen, the son of Pola Gauguin (Paul Rollon Gauguin) and grandson of the French Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin. His father Pola was himself an artist and art critic whose memoir "My Father, Paul Gauguin" (1937) kept the family's artistic legacy in active circulation. From the age of four, Paul René lived in Norway, receiving his early schooling in Oslo and spending summers on the Sørlandet coast, where the sea, fish, birds, and the forms of Norse mythology became the permanent vocabulary of his imagery.
His training as a printmaker was unconventional. Between 1930 and 1935 he taught himself woodcut technique during fishing trips to Mallorca and Ibiza - working with simple tools, Spanish timber, and the direct demands of an isolated workshop. He made his formal debut at the Høstutstillingen (Autumn Exhibition) in 1936, presenting colour woodcuts that drew immediate attention for their combination of expressionist energy and a distinctly Nordic palette. He is recognised as one of the central figures in what became known as the Norwegian colour woodcut school, a movement that pushed the woodblock medium toward bold chromatic layering and mythological subject matter.
In 1938 he travelled to Spain as a correspondent for the newspaper Dagbladet, completing his series "Barcelona" while filing dispatches. Back in Norway, from 1939 to 1945, he designed sets and costumes for Unge Trøndelag Teater, then moved to assignments at Nationaltheatret and Folketeatret in Oslo, and eventually at Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. The theatrical work sharpened his instinct for compressed, dramatic composition - qualities that feed directly into the woodcuts' stark silhouettes and mythic staging.
A visit to Greece in 1955 produced an important detour into three-dimensional work: he began experimenting with enamel, iron constructions, and scrap-metal sculpture, absorbing the visual language of ancient Mediterranean form. The impact shows in woodcut titles such as "En gresk kvinne" (1959), "Gresk gud" (1956), and the "Olympos" series. He also illustrated children's books by the Norwegian poet Inger Hagerup, including "That Summer" and "Little Parsley", adding a quieter, domestic register to an otherwise mythologically charged body of work.
Gauguin's work entered the permanent collection of Nasjonalmuseet (the National Museum of Norway), which holds pieces including "Sea Monster" and "In time forever". The first major posthumous solo exhibition, organised by his third wife Martha Poulsen in 1981, displayed 107 works at the National Museum in Oslo. On the Nordic auction market his prints circulate almost exclusively through Blomqvist in Oslo, where all 21 recorded lots have appeared. Subjects include trees, owls, fish, insects, roosters, Greek deities, and sea creatures - the recurring bestiary of his woodcut practice. Top prices have reached 3,800 NOK for "Treet" (1956), with most colour woodcuts selling in the 1,000-2,200 NOK range, consistent with the accessible secondary market for mid-century Norwegian printmaking.