The butcher shop 1956

Panayiotis Tetsis has depicted ‘The Butcher Shop’ in strokes of thick, juicy paint. Imagine him, brush in hand, smearing and daubing with all those fleshy pinks, bloody reds, and fatty yellows. I think Tetsis must have been fascinated by the colors in the scene, how light bounces off the slick surfaces, the contrast between the raw meat and the cool, almost clinical blues in the background. The paint has been applied so thickly, it almost feels like you could reach out and touch it! Look at the way he’s captured the texture of the carcasses. It's like he wants you to smell the meat. There’s this one decisive stroke of dark red that makes you feel the weight and gravity of the hanging meat. It reminds me of Soutine, who was obsessed with painting meat too. There is a conversation across time happening here about life, death, and the artist's visceral response to the world. Painting can be a way to feel our way through the messy business of being alive.