Expressive and Unkosher

Chaim Soutine's The Beef (1925)

Jewish artist of Lithuanian decent, Chaim Soutine, made a splash in Paris with his unique brand of expressionism. Read an interesting book on him last week that discussed his varying receptions as outsider (Eastern European Jew living in Paris fascinated with Catholic ritual and marketplaces hanging raw, bloodied meat), as insider (a successful artist in his own right, though not without hard times), and as prophet of Abstract Expressionism (hence his popularity in the US in the 1940s and 50s).

Before I only knew him as buddy of Modigliani, now I will remember him as painter of gross meats. And other stuff...