L’Chaim: Soutine and the Jews of Parisian Bohemia, with Author Celeste Marcus
Hosted By: The New York Jewish Week, UJA-Federation of New York
Join New York Jewish Week and UJA-Federation of New York for the next event in our Folio literary series: author Celeste Marcus in conversation with journalist Julia Ioffe to discuss Celeste’s new book on the life of painter Chaim Soutine.
In 1913, Chaim Soutine, who would become one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, joined one of modern history’s most exciting artistic communities. This community was largely composed of Jewish painters, poets, and writers who had journeyed from Eastern Europe and Russia to Paris, driven by burning artistic ambition. Though poor and hungry, they had made it from their respective shtetls to the City of Light. Many of these immigrant artists lived in La Ruche (The Beehive), a modest but magical colony of humble artists’ studios near Montparnasse. They became known as the École de Paris, a title used by some to distinguish them from native French painters. The story of this romantic building and its inhabitants is one of the most exhilarating—and wrenching—chapters of modern Jewish history, as almost all these extraordinary people perished in the catastrophe that soon befell the Jewish people.
