Maruru (Offerings of Gratitude), from the Noa Noa Suite

Maruru (Offerings of Gratitude), from the Noa Noa Suite, created by Paul Gauguin French, 1848-1903 between 1893 and 1894, is a highly experimental print that pushes the boundaries of the medium. This wood-block print is characterized by its remarkable layering and complex application of materials. Gauguin utilized the block to print twice, once in yellow ocher and again in black ink, over a base yellow ink tone block applied to cream Japanese paper.

Furthermore, the artist enriched the surface with transferred golden-yellow, green, and orange oil-based media. The inclusion of organic binders such as beeswax and conifer resin (likely pine resin) bound the pigments, demonstrating Gauguin's profoundly exploratory approach to printmaking during this period. He supplemented the mechanical printing process with brush and black ink and diluted yellow printing ink, thereby blurring the distinctions between graphic art and drawing.

The work belongs to the celebrated Noa Noa Suite, a series of ten woodcuts created by 1848-1903 following his first transformative journey to Tahiti. This suite accompanied the quasi-fictional travel journal he wrote about his experiences, reflecting the cultural observations he made far from his native France. Unlike traditional editions, each impression in the suite often varies significantly due to these unique applications of color and surface additions, making works such as Maruru (Offerings of Gratitude) a distinctive mixed-media object. This exceptional example of post-Impressionist prints is part of the extensive collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.