Chaïm Soutine at the Pinacothèque de Paris until January 27, 2008

It was while studying Soutine’s portrait by Modigliani that Marc Restellini decided to put on this exhibition. In that sublime portrait, he discovered that the handsome Italian endowed Soutine, as discreetly as possible, with a religious symbolism by painting him with his left hand carrying out the Cohen’s benediction, that family of High priests in the Temple of Jerusalem. This deliberately secretive detail revealed an out-of-the common personality that might have escaped everyone but which Modigliani nonetheless wanted to immortalize, as though to confer a mystical dimension on Soutine.

This exhibition will show a brilliant artist, an inquisitor of souls and minds, through approximately 80 paintings, most of which are totally re-discovered works, exhibited for the very first time. Many canvases were restored for this occasion. The ensemble comes from the most important private collections as well as from international museums: French, Japanese, Swiss and American.

Through his use of portraiture, Soutine examined the personalities of his chosen sitters. He showed up their quintessential characteristics, and drew out of each of them what no other artist had perceived. He was quite rightly described as an Expressionist, and was the only one to have represented that movement in France, whereas it was the very basis of all the developing movements, be it in Germany and in Austria at the same period. A true visionary, he transcended reality to transform it into an imaginary representation about a century ahead of his time. On the cusp of several movements still in their infancy, he based his art on the most classical and the most illustrious of his fore-runners (Rembrandt, Courbet, Corot, Cézanne….) to become the major precursor of the greatest contemporary artists from Pollock to De Kooning. He was a reference for all of the Cobra movement, as well as for Bacon, whose pictorial powerfulness descends directly from Soutine.

Today the Pinacothèque de Paris wants to throw a new light on the works by this essential artist from the start of the 20th century, thanks to loans shown for the first and, quite probably, the last time.

Chaïm Soutine at the Pinacothèque de Paris
until January 27, 2008

Pinacothèque de Paris
http://www.pinacotheque.com/expoAVP.fr.html
28 Place de la Madeleine
75008 Paris

The Pinacothèque de Paris is open every day from 10.30 AM to 6 PM
On Tuesday December 25 , and January 1st, open between 2 PM to 6 PM.
The ticket office closes at 5.15 PM

Full rate : 9 euros
Reduced rate (on presentation of a document) : 7 euros
Between 12 and 25 years old, students, job seekers (documents less than a year
old),Large families, cardholders of Améthyste and Emeraude, Maison des artistes,
priority card holders for handicapped people
Free (on presentation of a document)
for the under –12s, journalists, ICOM, RMI and old age pensioners, Conference
Guides and teachers with a group reservation, invalid cardholders.
Group rates : 8,50 euros per person including the rental of the audiophone
(mandatory). Groups between 7 to 25 persons.

Metro :
Stop : Madeleine
Ligne 8 : Balard - Créteil Préfecture
Ligne 12 : Mairie d’Issy - Porte de la Chapelle
Ligne 14 : Saint Lazare - Olympiades
Bus : Stops : Madeleine et Madeleine – Vignon
Autobus 42 : Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou – Gare du Nord
Autobus 52 : Parc de Saint Cloud - Opéra Stop : Madeleine
Autobus 24 : Gare Saint Lazare - Ecole Vétérinaire de Maisons–Alfort
Autobus 84 : Porte de Champerret – Panthéon
Autobus 94 : Levallois Louison Bobet - Gare Montparnasse
Parking: Madeleine Tronchet Vinci, Rue Chauveau-Lagarde, Rue Caumartin