Searching for Chaim Soutine (work in progress)
What remains of us in the places that inspire us? Those that offer us respite, moments of reunion with ourselves, calm punctuated by the whispers of leaves, the tinkling of water, the murmur of streams and rivers, the timid yet certain notes of birds?
Geniuses draw inspiration from places, and their works preserve traces of them. But do these places, in turn, draw inspiration from the geniuses? Do they keep the traces of their steps? Their breaths, paced by the flood of ideas overwhelming their minds?
What binds this fragile, invisible link between a person and a place that suddenly becomes dear to them?
In October 2023, I joined an expedition retracing the path of Chaïm Soutine to Champigny-sur-Veude, the painter’s final refuge. To follow in his footsteps and explore the places connected to this exceptional artist born in Belarus. To try to capture the atmosphere and inspiration of that place.
Once there, immersion into the history and world of Soutine. People shared with us family stories featuring Soutine and passing from one generation to the next one.
An extraordinary character, who lived through painting. His work is often described as “dark,” and the same adjective is at times attributed to the painter himself. But was it truly so?
What did he think about while walking among these trees here? What did he hear in the sound of the wind? What did it tell him? What did he tell it?
I try to steep myself in these stories, in his work, in his place. I try to forget the distance in time that separates us, and the adjectives assigned to the painter or his art. To close my eyes and feel. To try to grasp. What he found here. What he kept from this place. What this place kept from him.
Geniuses draw inspiration from places, and their works preserve traces of them. But do these places, in turn, draw inspiration from the geniuses? Do they keep the traces of their steps? Their breaths, paced by the flood of ideas overwhelming their minds?
What binds this fragile, invisible link between a person and a place that suddenly becomes dear to them?
In October 2023, I joined an expedition retracing the path of Chaïm Soutine to Champigny-sur-Veude, the painter’s final refuge. To follow in his footsteps and explore the places connected to this exceptional artist born in Belarus. To try to capture the atmosphere and inspiration of that place.
Once there, immersion into the history and world of Soutine. People shared with us family stories featuring Soutine and passing from one generation to the next one.
An extraordinary character, who lived through painting. His work is often described as “dark,” and the same adjective is at times attributed to the painter himself. But was it truly so?
What did he think about while walking among these trees here? What did he hear in the sound of the wind? What did it tell him? What did he tell it?
I try to steep myself in these stories, in his work, in his place. I try to forget the distance in time that separates us, and the adjectives assigned to the painter or his art. To close my eyes and feel. To try to grasp. What he found here. What he kept from this place. What this place kept from him.
