Chaïm Soutine: Against the Current

Chaïm Soutine was born in a shtetl in present-day Belarus and moved to Paris in 1913. The Jewish artist’s experiences of migration, poverty and cultural alienation influenced his work deeply; instead of embracing the Cubist or Surrealist movements that became popular in the French capital during the 1920s, Soutine chose to focus on depicting poorer members of society – bellboys, chambermaids and cooks – and frequently painted still lifes of food, which he had often had to go without. This exhibition at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf (2 September–14 January 2024) features more than 60 paintings, with a focus on works created between 1918–28, which reveal Soutine as an important documentarian of life in the years following the First World War. Find out more on K20’s website.

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The Rayfish (1922), Chaïm Soutine. Musée Calvet, ville d’Avignon; © ADAGP, Paris 2011

Still Life with Herrings (1915–16), Chaïm Soutine. Courtesy Galerie Larock-Granoff, Paris

The Groom (1925), Chaïm Soutine. Centre Pompidou, Paris. Courtesy BPK/CNAC-MNAM/Philippe Migeat