The cult of the Pacific: from Cook to Gaugin

A lavishly illustrated talk by art historian, author and broadcaster Leslie Primo, organised by the Arts Society North Yorkshire & South Durham.

Leslie looks at the invention of, and enduring Western obsession with, the so called ‘exotic’ or ‘noble savage’ starting with the first discovery of the Island of Tahiti in 1767.

He charts the impact of English and European influence in this part of the world through the eyes of Captain Cook and explorers before him in painted images of the island and their people by artists who accompanied these pioneering voyages, and into the 19th and early 20th century with the paintings of Gauguin.