The Butcher’s Shop

The first piece to be completed, The Butcher’s Shop is Haas’s response to a remarkable early genre subject by Annibale Carracci. Through a series of vivid images presented on two screens facing each other, he conjures up the world of the butchers, the world of the artist, and the encounter leading to the painting. The images on one screen show the scene in the painting––butchers working amid wooden trellises with iron spikes and hooks from which hang animal carcasses. On the other screen we see the artist, played by the celebrated ballet dancer Ivan Putrov. He has set up an easel to paint the butchers at work, accompanied by a boy assistant. Haas draws parallels between butchery and painting, comparing the various tools and materials of these physical, even visceral trades. On the other hand he contrasts Carracci’s seriousness with the down-to-earth humor of his models, who assume mock-heroic poses that fail to amuse him. Looking through Carracci’s eyes, we see the makings of The Butcher’s Shop and several other paintings and drawings––the assistant drinking wine; a vociferous monkey in the studio; the butchers, the assistant, and a woman shopping as they are transformed in his imagination into classically posed figures. The film is a meditation on the Kimbell’s painting, the painter’s melancholy character, his artistic preoccupations, and the depiction of meat and human flesh in art from Carracci to Rembrandt, Soutine, and Francis Bacon.

The Butcher’s Shop had its debut at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York in April 2008 and was shown to acclaim at that year’s Venice and Toronto film festivals. In Venice it was awarded the "Premio Open," a prize for new works that bridge film and art.