Category Archives: Tablet
Is Chaim Soutine the Great Overlooked Jewish Painter of Modernity?
A new gallery show helps reassess the Lithuanian-born artist’s important work—and reveals it as anything but tragic
On a quiet block in Chelsea, nestled among dozens of contemporary art exhibitions, a small but ambitious show has just opened seeking to give one of the great modern masters his due. Life in Death: Still Lifes and Select Masterworks of Chaim Soutine , on view through June 14 at Paul Kasmin Gallery, is the first in a series of exhibitions the gallery will present meant to re-contextualize the work of Lithuanian-born artist Chaim Soutine.
Soutine’s … Continue Reading ›› 
Norman Mailer Speaks to America From Beyond the Grave
A new authorized biography and collection of essays show why the literary figure has been so mythologized, reviled, and revered. This summer, I spent a string of rainy days exploring Norman Mailer’s Brooklyn Heights home—or to be precise—an exact replica of it, re-constructed and assembled in the artist Matthew Barney’s studio in Long Island City. From the dining-room table set on a faded carpet, to Mailer’s own library neatly installed on aging bookshelves, no detail had been overlooked. The simplicity of Mailer’s home stood in stark contrast to the flourishes that Barney, whose gallery I work for, had added—massive slabs of glistening salt, a feast caught in decay, a decadent golden throne enshrined in a room all its own—elements that in many ways conjured the spirit of Mailer, or Mailer’s work, even more than the actual interior of his home. There, I watched as Barney filmed a movie based loosely on Mailer’s Ancient Evenings, but which, more significantly, was inspired by the mythology of Mailer himself.
Kubrick’s Lost Holocaust Film
America’s greatest Jewish director was haunted by the Nazi horror—too much to address it directly in film
The subject he most wanted to make a film about, Stanley Kubrick once said, was the Holocaust—“But good luck putting all of that into a 2-hour movie.” Kubrick, who directed 13 feature-length films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, and The Shining, was fascinated by manifestations of power in his films but was deeply fearful of its existence in the real world. Born in 1928 on the cusp of World War … Continue Reading ›› Thinking Outside the Shoe Box
The new head of Jacques Levine footwear looks to revive his family business—by going beyond slipper
Two years ago, Sam Calvanio found himself at a Passover Seder seated across from an older woman who asked what he did for a living. “I run a slipper company,” Calvanio answered. The woman cast him a dubious look and scoffed, “What are you, Jacques Levine?” Calvanio smiled and responded simply, “Actually, yes.”
Calvanio is the 28-year-old director of Jacques Levine, a footwear brand whose name may not yet resonate with today’s young women but was instantly recognizable … Continue Reading ›› Etgar Keret’s Chaos Theory
Suddenly, A Knock on the Door, the acclaimed Israeli writer’s new story collection, offers wry, coy looks at the paradoxes of life in the Jewish state
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