Arrival in Paris
Sept. 2, 2023 -
Jan. 14, 2024
Chaïm
Soutine
Soutine
Againstthe Current
Visit the exhibition at K20 in Düsseldorf until January 14, 2024.
While there, use the audio guide narrated by André Kaczmarczyk, available exclusively on site.
A Painter and a Legend
Chaïm Soutine (1893–1943) is one of the great painters of classical modernism. His paintings show landscapes, objects, and people in his immediate surroundings. An expressive quality can be found in his works with their distorted forms, exaggerations, dynamic contours, vigorous brushstrokes, and challenging color contrasts.
The surfaces of his paintings consist of dense weavings of colors. They are the result of a painting culture that referred to the most famous works of art history as models, employed a passionate painting process to generate the contours of the depicted objects and people, and created different surface areas by putting bold brushstrokes next to and on top of each other.
The particularly sensuous quality of his paintings makes Soutine one of the most celebrated representatives of an expressive painting style. He was a role model for painters and is admired to this day.
Soutine was a young painter from a poor background. In 1913, he went to Paris in the hopes of developing as an artist and of gaining economic success. He would go on to achieve both.
After growing up in a small town near Minsk in what is now Belarus, he studied in Minsk and Vilnius before he decided to move to Paris. The train journey there was two thousand kilometers long and took several days, which he spent in fourth class. He stayed with a friend who he had studied with, the painter Pinchus Krémègne, and lived with him in La Ruche (The Beehive) for a while, an artist colony with about 100 bare studios located near the slaughterhouses. The colony attracted many immigrants in precarious financial situations. It was here that Soutine met a community of international artists: Amedeo Modigliani, Marc Chagall, Jacques Lipchitz, Ossip Zadkine, and Fernand Léger all lived in La Ruche for a while.
Companions
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall, 1925
Köln, Museum Ludwig
bpk / Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln / Erfurth, Hugo
Feast Day, 1914
Oil on canvas
123,7 × 104,7 cm
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Photo: Walter Klein, Düsseldorf
Amedeo Modigliani
Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, Paris
Photo: Marc Vaux
© mahJ
Portrait of Max Jacob, 1916
Oil on canvas
95.5 × 83.4 cm
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Photo: Walter Klein, Düsseldorf
Juan Gris
in : Guillaume Apollinaire, Les Peintres Cubistes, Méditations Esthétiques, Eugène Figuière et Cie, Éditeurs, 1913,
online: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Gris#/media/Datei:Juan_Gris,_portrait_photograph,_published_in_Les_Peintres_Cubistes,_1913.jpg
Still Life (Violin and Inkwell)
Oil on canvas
104,5 × 75,5 cm
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Photo: Walter Klein, Düsseldorf
1
Soutine’s first accommodations in Paris
1913: La Ruche, artists’ colony, 2, Passage de Dantzig
Among those who lived and worked here over the years were Amedeo Modigliani, Marc Chagall, Jacques Lipchitz, Ossip Zadkine, Fernand Léger, and Pinchus Krémègne, who took in Soutine.
2
Lessons with the painter Fernand Cormon
1913: École des Beaux-Arts, 14, Rue Bonaparte
At the École des Beaux-Arts, Soutine attended lessons for two years in the studio of the painter Fernand Cormon, who had previously taught Vincent van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
3
Soutine’s second place of residence
1914: Cité Falguière, artists’ colony, 72, Rue Falguière
In this artists’ colony, Soutine shared a studio with the sculptor Oscar Miestchaninoff. Through Jacques Lipchitz, Soutine met Amedeo Modigliani. A close friendship developed between the two artists.
At this time, artists such as Constantin Brâncuşi and Tsugouharu Foujita also lived in the Cité Falguière.
4
Soutine’s first gallerist
1916: the apartment of Léopold Zborowski, Rue Joseph Bara
Amedeo Modigliani, represented by Zborowski, often took Soutine to lunch at the gallerist’s apartment. He convinced Zborowski to also take Soutine under contract, of whom Zborowski was, however, initially not very fond.
5
Paul Guillaume, art dealer
1922: Galerie Paul Guillaume, 59, Rue La Boétie
Paul Guillaume was one of the most important gallerists in Paris at the time. During the First World War, he exhibited the works of Giorgio De Chirico, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse in his gallery on Rue de Miromesnil. Thanks to the mediation of Guillaume, the collector Albert C. Barnes discovered Soutine’s works.
6
Soutine’s first own apartment
1925: Avenue du Parc Montsouris
Because Albert C. Barnes’s purchase of a large number of works, Soutine obtained a certain financial independence, as well as individual and artistic recognition. Soutine was thus able to afford his first own apartment and moved into an elegant building on Avenue du Parc Montsouris.
7
Soutine’s first large studio
1925: Rue du Saint-Gothard
It is in this studio that he painted the series Les Boeufs (The Oxen).
Before, he convinced his gallerist Leopold Zborowski to buy an ox carcass in one of the surrounding slaughterhouses for him. It served as a model for several of Soutine’s works.
8
Soutine’s first solo exhibition
1927: Galerie Henri Bing, 20, Rue La Boétie
From the mid-1920s on, Soutine was one of the established artists in Paris. At the Galerie Henri Bing, he had his first solo exhibition. Soutine was not present at the exhibition opening, because he did not like crowds of people.
9
First monograph on Soutine
1928: Waldemar George, Les artistes juifs, Paris, Editions Le Triangle, 8, Rue Stanislas
Waldemar George publishes the first monograph on Soutine. George was one of the most influential art critics of his time and a close friend of Robert Delaunay, Paul Guillaume and also Albert C. Barnes.
10
Second monograph on Soutine
1929: Élie Faure, Soutine, Paris, Les éditions du Crès, 11, Rue de Sèvres
The art historian Élie Faure was a close friend and admirer of Soutine. From 1927 onwards, Soutine temporarily lived at Faure’s and they were travelling together. Faure purchased several paintings from Soutine and dedicated a detailed monograph to him in 1929.
11
One of many apartments
1936: Hôtel particulier, Avenue Orléans
Soutine moved several times within Paris. It seemed like, he could not stay anywhere for a long time. 1936, he settled in a small hôtel particulier on Avenue Orléans.
12
Move to the Villa Seurat
1937: Villa Seurat
Soutine and his partner, Gerda Groth, moved into the noble Villa Seurat in the 14th arrondissement. Among others, Salvador Dalí, Henry Miller, and Chana Orloff, with whom he developed a close friendship, lived in the immediate vicinity.
13
1943: Montparnasse Cemetery, 3, Boulevard Edgar Quinet
On August 9, Soutine died in the hospital of Paris of a ulcer. Pablo Picasso, Max Jacob, and Jean Cocteau attended his funeral at Montparnasse Cemetery.
14
The studio of Amedeo Modigliani
13, Rue Ravignan, Montmartre, Le Bateau Lavoir
In the early years of the twentieth century, the Bateau Lavoir was the most important artists’ residence in Paris. Artists from all over the world, such as Kees van Dongen, Juan Gris, Douanier Rousseau, and Diego Rivera found refuge here. After 1909, the rents in Montmartre began to rise, and many artists, including Amedeo Modigliani, moved to Montparnasse to live in artists’ colonies such as La Ruche and La Cité Falguière.
15
The Pletzl, the Jewish quarter in Paris
Rue des Rosiers
Rue des Rosiers was a symbol of the Jewish community in Paris and is home to many shops and bookstores. It was located in the 4th arrondissement in the Pletzl, as the Jewish quarter of Paris is called. Between the fourteenth and twentieth centuries, the neighborhood saw a large influx of people fleeing persecution in Europe, including the Ashkenazi, Yiddish-speaking, and Sephardic communities.
16
Galerie Zborowski, 26, Rue de Seine
In his gallery, Léopold Zborowski exhibited artists such as Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Pinchus Krémègne, Chaïm Soutine, Marc Chagall, and Maurice Utrillo. The works of Amedeo Modigliani in 1920 brought him financial success, but the economic crisis of 1929 ruined the gallerist.
17
Meeting place for the avant-garde
Café du Dôme, 109, Boulevard du Montparnasse
The “Anglo-American Café” Café du Dôme was a popular meeting place for intellectuals since the early 1900s. Among the “Dômiers,” a term coined for the regulars who met at Café du Dôme, were next to Chaïm Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani, Ernest Hemingway, Max Ernst, Marie Laurencin and Wladimir Iljitsch Lenin.
18
Meeting place for the avant-garde
La Rotonde, 105, Boulevard du Montparnasse
La Rotonde opened in 1903 across the street from Café du Dome. At the time, it was a workers’ bistro. Over the years, it became a popular meeting place for many artists, including Pablo Picasso, Moïse Kisling, and Kiki de Montparnasse.
19
Meeting place for the avant-garde
Closerie des Lilas, 171, Boulevard du Montparnasse
Along with La Rotonde and Le Dôme, La Closerie des Lilas was another meeting place for artists and intellectuals. The “Montparnos,” as the regulars are known, included Guillaume Apollinaire, Man Ray, André Breton, Amedeo Modigliani, and Samuel Beckett.
20
Les Halles de Paris, Rue Rivoli/Boulevard Sébastopol
Les Halles de Paris was the name for the Halles centrales, a wholesale market for fresh produce located in the 1st arrondissement, in the heart of Paris, which gave its name to the surrounding neighborhood. It was in these market halls that Soutine purchases the rays and herrings that serve as models for his still lifes.
21
The Louvre, 20 Quai du Louvre
The Musée du Louvre was one of Soutine’s favorite places in Paris. He spent many hours here, studying old masters such as Rembrandt van Rijn and Jean Siméon Chardin, as well as Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. Their still lifes were an important source of inspiration to Soutine.
Sudden Success
The notion of the poor artist and intellectual prevailed both during and after the war. During this time, Soutine painted a great deal, while also hoping for success. In 1916, his friend Amedeo Modigliani convinced his gallerist Léopold Zborowski to represent Soutine as well. The art dealer gave him a small regular allowance and enabled him to stay and paint in Céret and Cagnes-sur-Mer. The work Le Pâtissier (The Pastry Maker), which was painted in Céret in 1919, would become a central work in Soutine’s career.
The American art collector and museum founder Albert C. Barnes was in Paris in the winter of 1922–23 looking for paintings for his collection of European Impressionism. Whether he saw the portrait of the pastry maker by chance in a café in Montparnasse or if it was his agent, the art dealer Paul Guillaume, who made him aware of it can no longer be reconstructed. In any case, Barnes bought the painting along with 51 other works by the artist from Léopold Zborowski’s gallery. Paul Guillaume made sure that the news spread quickly in his magazine Les Arts à Paris. As a result, Soutine began selling his works, and the prices for his paintings rose. Once again, Paris became the place where the story of an artist’s sudden discovery and instant prosperity unfolded.
Soutine, who was almost 30 years old at the time, was finally able to fundamentally change his lifestyle. However, he was not set for life. Especially during the financial crisis of the 1930s and during World War II, Soutine again needed the support of friends and patrons like Madeleine and Marcellin Castaing.
The Fateful Years of a Jewish Immigrant in Paris
The huge recognition of Soutine’s artistic work and the financial independence he had earned from Albert Barnes’s purchases of his works were clearly good for the artist. Some people soon became envious of his success, however.
Several established French artists who feared for their own success and influence turned against the many foreign artists who were becoming well-known and relied on local institutions. The press supported their arguments, which were characterized by nationalist and anti-Semitic sentiments.
When Soutine came to Paris in 1913, he met many other Jewish artists from all over the world, also from Eastern Europe. Marc Chagall, Henri Epstein, Léon Indenbaum, Michel Kikoïne, Moise Kisling, Pinchus Krémègne, Jacques Lipchitz, Jules Pascin, Ossip Zadkine, and many more artists lived and worked there. Roughly 100,000 Jews from Czarist Russia settled in France between 1880 and 1925. They did so because of the wide-spread anti-Semitism and discrimination in Czarist Russia, among other reasons. Jews had regarded France as a hospitable country since the French Revolution, because it offered them access to all areas of political, economic, and cultural life. Soutine associated Paris with such ideas as emancipation, artistic growth, and inspiration. This seemed to come true for him, despite the envy and related hostilities he later experienced.
A Visionary and Admired Pioneer
The artist Chaїm Soutine was admired by fellow painters while he was still alive. After World War II, his works became accessible to a wider audience in Europe and the US in group exhibitions as well as monographic shows. More than anything else, it was the retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1950 that helped a new generation of artists to discover Soutine’s work and to declare him a visionary and pioneer.
With their special subjects, his paintings evoke existential questions and are a testimony to his empathy. Artists who called for the keen observation of reality and who were searching for a new realism were encouraged by Soutine’s works. Alice Neel admired how he empathized with the types of people he portrayed, and she pursued similar goals in her own paintings.
In his large compositions, Francis Bacon juxtaposed human figures with slaughtered cows in a reference to both Rembrandt van Rijn and Soutine. He did this with the goal of creating an association between the strong bodies of the human figures and the drama of the skinned animals, while depicting their struggle through his fierce painting style of the opened bodies.
Willem de Kooning recognized his own painting practice in Soutine’s application of paint and felt like his colleague’s corporeal relationship with the motif, canvas, and colors spoke to him.
Soutine’s dynamic outlines are the result of a passionate painting process and are interpreted as a record of the painter’s inner emotions and outer movements.
These outlines occupied and encouraged several generations of artists who belonged to Art Informel and Abstract Expressionism. They regarded the abstract traces of the paint and the brush as seismographic readings of the pure movement of the painter’s hands.
The Exhibition
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen has assembled around 60 of Chaїm Soutine’s works in an impressive overview of his artistic development. This selection sheds light on how his expressive pictorial language took shape in his early works and concentrates on several series of pictures that were created between 1918 and 1928—the time of a new beginning after World War I.
Seen as a whole, the motifs reflect the misery and triumph of a painter who suffered under the historical and political circumstances and events. The subjects of his paintings are existential allegories, while his painting style shows his intensive exploration of the people and things around him. It also reveals the possibilities and the entire wealth of painting. The surface of each of Chaїm Soutine’s works is a dramatic celebration.
About the speaker
As an actor and director, André Kaczmarczyk (*1986) inspires both theater and film audiences and is now lending his voice to the audio guide for the Chaïm Soutine exhibition in K20. He studied at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin and has been a member of the ensemble at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus since 2016.
Since 2021, he has been investigating as the first gender-fluid chief inspector, Vincent Ross, on "Polizeiruf 110".
Audible in German, English and simple language (D).
