Editorial: Back-to-work blues remedied by art

The works and words of French artist Paul Gauguin are worth contemplating in the New Year, writes Mark Story.

Facebook isn't helping the back-to-work blues.

Photos from friends still on holiday sting the eyes - sandy sunsets, kids playing in the surf, smoking grills, low tides and lagers enjoyed under weathered umbrellas.

Sickening.

But such longing is exactly what prompts resolutions. Our yearning for anything other than a repeat of last year; humankind's shunning of sameness and endless drive for otherness.

Survival tips for the new year malaise are everywhere.

A press release from the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) this week outlined its Five Ways to Wellbeing at Work toolkit.

They include: Planning your next holiday, setting aside 15 minutes a day to do something you enjoy, taking advantage of the lighter evenings with friends and family, get organised and, lastly, plan how you will do all these things.

On top of work, that's a ton of work. Such pragmatism at this forlorn juncture isn't particularly attractive.

While I hadn't really focused on what 2018 should bring, a recent visit to the MTG to see Yuki Kihara's exhibit Te Taenga Mai o Salome, got me thinking.

The standout was a depiction of one of my favourite paintings by French artist Paul Gauguin, the monumental 1897 work Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Not that it's a case of either-or, but I easily prefer Gauguin's three questions to MHF's five steps.

The Frenchman's masterpiece, and what it urges you to contemplate, sparks some lofty aspirations and intoxicating existential angst.