"Te po," meaning "the night" in Tahitian, refers to the primordial darkness of Polynesian cosmology, the realm from which the gods and the world itself were believed to have emerged, a concept Gauguin encountered and recorded during his time in Tahiti. This woodcut is part of the Noa Noa suite, a set of prints Paul Gauguin created in Paris after his first return from Tahiti, carved with a deliberately rough, primitivist technique that broke from refined European printmaking convention. Like the other Noa Noa prints, it was made to accompany his memoir of the same name, blending genuine Tahitian belief with Gauguin's own romanticized reconstruction of island myth.
Printed with archival giclée inks on smooth, acid-free 220 gsm gallery-grade fine-art paper; available in multiple sizes.
