Maruru (Thank You)

Maruru (Thank You) is a significant print created between 1894 and 1895 by Paul Gauguin, Max Kahn, and the Print and Drawing Club of The Art Institute of Chicago. Classified as a print, the work was executed as a woodcut on coated wove paper, demonstrating the Post-Impressionist shift away from conventional academic techniques toward more expressive, non-European media. This period, spanning the final decades of the 19th century, specifically 1876 to 1900, was crucial for French artists experimenting with symbolic representation and flat design.

Gauguin, known for his retreat to the South Pacific, adopted the woodcut medium to capture the symbolic, often harsh character of his perceived Tahitian environment. The technique, characterized by crude, stark lines and simplified forms, perfectly suited the artist's pursuit of primitivism and his search for an art form divorced from Western sophistication. While the initial image concept is Gauguin's, the collaboration involving Kahn and the Print and Drawing Club suggests that this specific impression was produced or disseminated in the United States, allowing American audiences access to the latest imagery from the influential French avant-garde.

The choice of woodcut facilitated the production of multiple prints, helping to circulate Gauguin's powerful visual style internationally. Unlike unique oil paintings, prints offered accessibility and ensured that the aesthetic principles established by the artist became widespread. This collaborative endeavor underscores the increasingly complex global networks connecting European artistic centers and institutions like the Chicago Print and Drawing Club. This historically important woodcut, reflecting the complex interplay between artist, culture, and printmaking technology, is now preserved within the extensive collection of the National Gallery of Art.