I haven’t quite figured out the time management skills required to see an exhibition that isn’t in its final closing moments… so, true to form, I bustled through the Chaïm Soutine exhibition at the Pinacothèque de Paris with the rest of the last minute crowds.

Born in 1893 near Minsk, in the small Jewish settlement of Smilovichi, Soutine left the Russian Empire and Vilnius School of Fine Arts for Paris. Based around Montparnasse and living in the fabled artistic centre La Ruche (The Beehive), Soutine is a key figure in the Parisian cultural legacy of noble or artistic poverty, Eastern European émigrés and Expressionism.

The exhibition opened with the products of Soutine’s youth, predominantly from his wretchedly poor period in the 1910s. Using rich colours to give the works life, Soutine presents ultimately distorted visions of everyday life. It’s grotesque, yes (he even goes as far as entitling one of his works as such), but it’s no where near as horrific as the previous exhibition I’ve written about, that of 16th century Italian artist, Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Soutine treats his subjects warmly, and his depictions of the grotesque have not been undertaken with detachment.

Soutine left Paris in 1918 for Cagnes on the Côte d’Azur, and then settled in the Pyrenees town of Céret for three years. This was followed by a stint (1923-25) divided between Paris and the vicinity of Cagnes (the so-called ‘Cagnes period’). During this era, the works shift focus (reiterated by a descent into the Pinacothèque basement) and become muddled landscapes and muffled portraits. Soutine depicts villages all in a jumble, like hazy memories souvenired from Mediterranean towns, basked in a warm sunlight but lacking structure and foundation. It’s just like German Expressionism mixed with one too many beakers of pastis… with a bit of hanging meat and the odd suspended produce still-life thrown in for good measure.

A fascinatingly vivid exhibition in terms of content, but the layout and access to a logical flow of information maybe left a little to be desired…