French artist Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) once reproached the Impressionists for searching "e;around the eye and not at the mysterious centre of thought."e; 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 "e;mysterious centre"e; 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 "e;language of the listening eye."e; Gamboni shows that the interaction between perception, cognition, and imagination was at the core of Gauguin's work, and he traces a line of continuity in them that has been previously overlooked. Emulating Gauguin's wide-ranging curiosity with literature, psychology, theology, and the natural sciences-not to mention the whole of art history-this richly illustrated book provides new insight into the life and works of this well-known yet little understood artist.