French artist Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) once reproached the Impressionists for searching "around the eye and not at the mysterious centre of thought." But what did he mean by this enigmatic phrase? In this innovative investigation into Gauguin's art and thought, Dario Gamboni illuminates Gauguin's quest for this "mysterious centre" and offers a fresh look at the artist's output in all media--from ceramics and sculptures to prints, paintings, and his large corpus of writings.

Foregrounding Gauguin's conscious use of ambiguity, Gamboni unpacks what the artist called the...