I shut my eyes in order to see.

Meaning of the quote

The quote suggests that sometimes we need to close our eyes in order to better understand and see things. When we close our eyes, we can focus more on our inner thoughts, ideas, and imagination. This can help us see things in a new way and come up with creative solutions or insights that we might not have seen with our eyes open. The artist is suggesting that using our imagination and inner vision can be just as important as using our physical eyes to see the world around us.

About Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin was a renowned French painter, sculptor, and writer who played a pivotal role in the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist art movements. His bold use of color and experimental style set him apart from the Impressionists, and his time in Tahiti significantly influenced his later work, which focused on the relationship between people, nature, and the spiritual world.

More about the author

More quotes from Paul Gauguin

Concentrate your strengths against your competitor’s relative weaknesses.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

In art, all who have done something other than their predecessors have merited the epithet of revolutionary; and it is they alone who are masters.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

Civilization is what makes you sick.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

Many excellent cooks are spoilt by going into the arts.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

I shut my eyes in order to see.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

We never really know what stupidity is until we have experimented on ourselves.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

Life is hardly more than a fraction of a second. Such a little time to prepare oneself for eternity!

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

There is always a heavy demand for fresh mediocrity. In every generation the least cultivated taste has the largest appetite.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker

Life has no meaning unless one lives it with a will, at least to the limit of one’s will. Virtue, good, evil are nothing but words, unless one takes them apart in order to build something with them; they do not win their true meaning until one knows how to apply them.

Paul Gauguin

French painter and printmaker