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Although Gauguin experimented with different types of mediums, the two mediums that will be focused on are printmaking (zincographs/woodcuts) and painting.
Because of the lack of industrialized workspaces in the uncolonized areas of Tahiti, Gauguin was obligated to turn to painting with oil paints, rather than making prints with woodcuts or zincographs. If Gauguin wished to make any sort of print, he would have to create monotypes, which are singular prints taken from a design created in oil paint or printing ink on glass or metal (as stated in the Tahiti section).
As discussed before, there is a clear shift from solely using black (and occasionally reddish-brown) ink in his prints to a lot more color and vibrancy in his oil paintings from Tahiti. However, even between his zincographs from the Volpini Suite (made prior to his Tahiti endeavors) and the woodcuts he made (when returning back from Tahiti), there is a clear impact his time in Tahiti had on his muse. His woodcuts are more abstract and include more natural, spiritual aspects that are part of Tahitian culture. Meanwhile, the zincographs were more realistic portrayals of life in France.
Paul Gauguin. Nativity (Mother and Child Surrounded by Five Figures), c. 1902. The Art Institute of Chicago.
Although both mediums have their differences in color and expression, there is a core concept of layering present in the two modes of artistic expression. A study on Gauguin's Nativity (Mother and Child Surrounded by Five Figures), claims that, initially, when glancing at the print, it seems to be a simple monotype. However, upon a closer assessment, it was a lot more complex than a simple monotyping technique; there were several regions in the area of the woman cradling the child that did not contain any ink or pigment. Art historians have made theories that these areas had been formed by a process of "blind-incising" – indentations in the paper where ink was not transferred (Walton).
The study later revealed that "Gauguin used a hard and flat material (such as a glass slab), covered it in ink, and then created multiple monotypes of different images from this inked matrix. In doing so, he left behind a palimpsest of un-inked areas from earlier drawings that would be transferred onto a piece of paper as blank lines with no surface topography," (Walton). This unique way of creating layers in what seemed to be a singular layered print can be tied to the layering process used in painting his oil paintings of Tahitian subjects during his time spent in Tahiti.
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