Paint as Flesh
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
An exhibition starting today at Helly Nahmad Gallery shows Chaim Soutine and Francis Bacon alongside one another, demonstrating the influence that the former had on the latter. “There are distinct links between the two painters: direct painting and general studio practice, the equation of oil pigment with flesh, and a certain aggressive re-invention of Old Master paintings,” according to the gallery. “Indeed, the connections between Bacon’s art and that of Soutine are immediately striking as well as less overt: both artists share a nuanced passion and energy toward paint, brushstroke, and the necessity of subject matter.”
Soutine/Bacon runs through June 18 at Helly Nahmad Gallery, 975 Madison Avenue, on the corner of 76th Street, 212-879-2075, hellynahmadgallery.com.
Franklin Einspruch is an artist and writer.
