Mahana Atua (Day of the Gods)

Mahana Atua (Day of the Gods) by Paul Gauguin; Pola Gauguin; Christian Cato is a seminal print created between 1894 and 1895. This deeply textured image was executed as a woodcut on delicate China paper, exemplifying the radical technical explorations of the French artist, Paul Gauguin, following his return from his first period in Tahiti. By employing the woodcut medium, Gauguin moved away from the slickness of contemporary printmaking, favoring instead a raw aesthetic characterized by heavily worked surfaces and simplified, block-like forms. This technique allowed him to imbue the subject with a profound sense of the archaic and the spiritual.

The imagery within the work reflects Gauguin’s enduring fascination with Oceanic culture and his philosophical pursuit of primitivism as a critique of European societal conventions. While the title suggests a scene rooted in Polynesian mythology or ritual, the graphic quality of the print demonstrates Gauguin's synthesis of Symbolist ideology with the visual aesthetics of the South Pacific. The period of its creation, 1876 to 1900, marks a revolutionary time where French artists redefined the boundaries of pictorial space and personal expression.

While Paul Gauguin is the primary conceptual force behind the image, the classification notes the involvement of Pola Gauguin and Christian Cato. Cato, in particular, may have played a significant role in the technical production or in overseeing later editions of the woodblock, ensuring the dissemination of these powerful, high-contrast prints. This graphic intensity, achieved through the woodcut process, establishes the piece as a crucial precursor to subsequent Expressionist graphic traditions. This important French print, detailing Gauguin’s groundbreaking contribution to modern art during the period 1876 to 1900, is held in the prestigious collection of the National Gallery of Art.