The Gauguin exhibition opened at the National Gallery of Art to glowing press reviews.
Viewers stand in long lines every day and pack the show.
Movie stars, entertainers, fashion designers, the chic, the rich and the famous glamorize the attendance list. Yet, to some people, many of them nonwhite, the exhibition and the adulation bestowed on it by a predominantly white culture seem vaguely insulting. In the museum world in which the Gauguin exhibition so comfortably thrives, nonwhites can feel disenfranchised. It is a myth graphically illustrated in this most comprehensive exhibition ever of the artistic legacy of Paul Gauguin. This legacy is due in no small part to his contribution to the concept of the artist as a spiritual sauvage.