One of the last exhibitions I saw in Germany before I came to the US in the early 1980s was a Chaim Soutine retrospective of many of his meat paintings. The artist was curiously missing from the German art museums, and the curator’s notes were stretching psychological analyses of the reasons why he painted the way he did and, particularly, what he painted, namely dead meat. Discussions of his life-long hunger, speculations about his dietary restrictions due to stomach ulcers (the ultimate cause of his untimely death) and veiled references to the physical abuse he experienced as a child in a dirt poor family of 11 siblings abounded. His urge to draw persisted despite beatings by an orthodox Jewish father who felt this was not in line with religious proscriptions.

I had trouble digesting the body of Soutine’s work – it seemed brutal and yet exuberant in its colorization.

And here we are in 2018 where I saw many of his paintings at a recent visit to the Barnes foundation, realizing now with a more adult and educated eye the power of his vision as well as the depth of his craft. Although Barnes bought 52 of his paintings at once, and, I believe, more later, the collector and artist did not exactly take to each other – see a description here:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-ca-shocking-paris-exerpt-20150503-story.html

 

Here is short french film re-enacting Barnes’ visit with various French artists and dealers, showing many of the treasures now on view at the Foundation. Most interesting for the actual photos of the artist(s).

The exhibit I wish I could see is the one currently offered at the Jewish Museum in NYC, Chaim Soutine: Flesh. ( I guess  meat is too gross a title for the refined sensibilities of the New Yorkers. I guess you cringe at today’s photos as well….)

https://thejewishmuseum.org

The Schjeldahl review below seems like the perfect guide to understanding what is on offer – he has written about Soutine multiple times, but this essay struck me as the ultimate combination of description and analysis.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/the-vulnerable-ferocity-of-chaim-soutine?utm_source=Breakfast+with+ARTnews&utm_campaign=2aaffa45e2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c5d7f10ceb-2aaffa45e2-293486709

A classic book on Soutine by David Sylvester (Chaim Soutine, 1893-1943) who died in 2001 is, alas, rarely available and then only for a steep price.  Maybe I’ll raid the piggy bank….

And by the way, what you see is what we eat……