Gamboni is highly attuned to the playfulness as well as the mysterious depths of Gauguins art. Making full use of Gauguins writings and examining in great depth the idiosyncracies of his work, he pursues his parti pris of seeking out the unsuspected images (usually hidden faces) that lie in wait for the knowing gaze of a sympathetic viewer . . . Firmly based in earlier scholarship, it is the freshness, perspicacity and comprehensive nature of Gambonis analyses that make his book one of lasting importance.
Burlington Magazine
What Gamboni seeks to explore is how Gauguins mind works: the book is a journey into the mysterious centre of his thought . . . The treatment is therefore something of a novelty in art history, in biography, and in the academy more generally. Gamboni takes Gauguin seriously, not only as an artist or a fabulist, but as an intellectual . . . Gamboni is a subtle guide to this sort of intellectual cross-fertilisation, and a shrewd monitor of Gauguins trafficking in ideas . . . a profound book.
Apollo Magazine
Paul Gauguin also wanted to lose the shackles of verisimilitude and tried to paint not so much with the eye as with, per the title, Paul Gauguin: The Mysterious Centre of Thought. Author Dario Gamboni plunges deep into Gauguins use of myth, symbol, and the unconscious here.
Boston Globe
In this wide-ranging and erudite book Gamboni engages (various branches of) philosophy, theology, linguistics, psychology and aesthetics, among other disciplines, in order to locate, orapproach, what Gauguin somewhat eluvisvely identified as the mysterious centre of thought.
Print Quarterly
Another significant attraction of the book is its comprehensive coverage: it takes a holistic approach to Gauguins career without being predominantly biographical . . . Where previous monographs on Gauguin have tended to prioritise his painting, or else to deliver dedicated studies of, say, his sculpture or his prints, Gamboni again, like Gauguin himself extends his focus to a variety of media, and in particular gives fresh attention to the artists fantastical pots and vases, exploring their connections with the themes and forms of the Peruvian pre-Hispanic ceramics that Gauguin associated with his savage childhood in Lima.
H-France Review
Beautifully written, Gamboni ranges far and wide in Gauguins oeuvre to offer a sustainedre-reading of his work in all mediums, taking the reader on a series of interlocked journeys. This book will remain on the bookshelves of every scholar of Gauguin for generations to come.
Richard Brettell, Margaret M. McDermott Distinguished Chair of Art and Aesthetic Studies and Edith O'Donnell Distinguished Chair, The University of Texas at Dallas
Do we need another book on Gauguin? This is the book we have always needed that Gauguin himself has needed to do justice to the range of the artists mind and his creative vision. Gauguin himself was as adept with words as with images, so the pairing of Gamboni and Gauguin is a particularly fruitful one. Dario Gamboni matches Gauguins range, introducing, as he passes from one aspect of Gauguins creative thought to another, relevant matters of cultural anthropology, perceptual psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and theology. Gambonis writing matches his topic, which makes it all the more engaging and important, not only as prose but as thought. This is an exceptional book.
Richard Shiff, Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art, The University of Texas at Austin