Shocking Paris

December 15, 2014
The story of immigrant artists who were celebrated as the School of Paris.Histories of bohemian Paris usually feature Matisse, Picasso and their circle. Former Los Angeles Times diplomatic correspondent Meisler (When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years, 2011, etc.) takes a fresh view by highlighting three artistic iconoclasts who happened to be Jewish immigrants: Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Marc Chagall (1887-1985) and, the author's central focus, Chaim Soutine (1893-1943). Critic Andre Warnod publicized them as the School of Paris, talented foreigners who emigrated, he said, with "hardly anything else in their baggage but the will to enrich their art with what they find among us." Meisler found considerable material to document the lives and works of Modigliani and Chagall, but Soutine proved elusive. With no letters, memoirs or personal notes to draw upon, the author still puts together a vivid portrait of a difficult, irascible man, markedly unlike the gregarious Chagall or suave Modigliani. Unattractive and noticeably unkempt, Soutine's emotional temperament emerged in his work: A predominant trait "was the thickness of the paint with its dynamic swirls, bolstering the belief that the artist must have attacked the canvas in some kind of frenzy." When a painting failed to meet his expectations, he violently slashed it. Meisler finds recurring instances of Soutine's "paralytic shyness, his foolish naivete, his volatile anger and his sometimes-cursed relations with those who wanted to embrace him." Among those were a wealthy patron, Madeleine Castaing, whom Meisler interviewed; and Albert Barnes, the eccentric collector who discovered Soutine during an early buying trip. Soutine's works, Barnes exclaimed, "were a surprise, if not a shock....I felt he was making creative use of certain traits of the work of Bosch, Tintoretto, Van Gogh, Daumier and Cezanne, and was getting new effects with color." Meisler throws new light on Soutine and, more broadly, on the experiences of aspiring immigrant artists in the city that fostered their dreams.

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March 1, 2015

The School of Paris was a group of Jewish immigrant artists who lived in the city in the early 20th century. Critics gave them this collective name to distinguish them from French artists. They included Chaim Soutine, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, and Jules Pascin. Former LA Times foreign correspondent Meisler (United Nations) offers an intimate account of their lives, from their experiences in their native countries (many were from Russia) to their days in Paris. The author describes in detail their personalities, childhood upbringing, relationships with other artists, and encounters with anti-Semitism. He provides context to world events during the time period, including the Great Depression and World War I. Despite speaking little to no French, these artists managed to make a name for themselves through their creations. VERDICT A fascinating read for anyone interested in art history or art, from the lay reader to undergraduates to art historians.--Tina Chan, SUNY Oswego

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April 1, 2015
Stanley Meisler's Shocking Paris is chilling. A family connection by marriage to the dark, enigmatic artist Chaim Soutine propels Meisler's meticulous examination of the painter's scantily documented life. A poor shtetl boy, Soutine was able to attend art school only because his parents received compensation after he was badly beaten for making a sketch of the rabbi . Shy and art-obsessed, Soutine arrived in Paris in 1913 as part of a wave of Russian Jewish artists fleeing persecution and seeking artistic freedom. As he developed his sculptural approach to paint and created his highly charged portraits and unnerving still lives of decaying sides of beef, Soutine found his opposite in savvy Chagall and a savior in Modigliani. Meisler brings a fresh perspective to this ardent trio's struggles and triumphs while charting the rising anger among the French against the brilliant immigrant artists gathered in Montparnasse, fury that found a ready channel once the Nazis invaded.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)