Oceanic metamorphoses: Easter Island, Paul Gauguin and “magic art” through the eyes of the surrealists

ABSTRACT

During the 20th century the French surrealist group evinced a long-standing interest in Pacific culture, spanning from their early exhibitions of the 1920s to their later writings of the post-war period. The group’s intellectual investment in the Pacific endured and survived significant transformations within surrealist discourse itself, and accordingly the region came to attract new and more nuanced theoretical significance over time. This article charts the development of the theoretical reception of the region within the surrealist movement, paying particular attention to how it came to be associated with magic in the post-war era. In mapping out the region’s legacy within the movement, the article connects the material culture of Easter Island to Marquesan ornamentation and the paintings of Paul Gauguin, which are all addressed as crucial points of reference for the “poetic” or “analogical” world view that the surrealists co-opted from the Pacific.

KEYWORDS:

• Easter Island
• Alfred Métraux
• Paul Gauguin
• André Breton
• surrealism
• magic

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Will Atkin

Will Atkin completed his BA, MA and PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and now lectures at the University of Nottingham on 19th- and 20th-century European art history.