Ta Matete (Market), 73×92 cm, 1892, Basel Museum of Fine Arts. Known as Market, this is Gauguin’s boldest and flattest painting. It reduces all forms to flat color planes, eliminating any sense of volume. The figures are purely conceptualized, realistic yet imaginary, and decorative profile images, reminding one of ancient Egyptian mural figures.

The composition centers on five slender Tahitian women seated on a long bench, all shown in profile. Through their shapes, colors, postures, and gestures, they engage in a conversation with musical rhythm that extends to the right, where a woman in red and yellow patterned dress stands outside the frame. In the background, two fishermen carrying nets hint at the bustling market, set against lush natural surroundings.

Through Gauguin’s most radical and pure language—rustic dialogue imagery, large decorative color planes, and rigorous musical structure—he attempts to explore the true face of primitivism. Regarding this musical approach to painting, Gauguin wrote: “Just as music has its function, color is called upon to assume it in modern painting.” This concept directly influenced Klee, Kandinsky, and Klee of the new century.