The “touchingly strange” paintings of Georges Rouault

Michael Kimmelman reviews the Rouault exhibition in today’s NYTimes. “At one time Rouaults reputation rivaled Matisses, and his clowns and prostitutes were as ubiquitously reproduced as Ben Shahn posters. He had retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in 1945 and 1953; when he died in 1958, at 87, the French government organized a state funeral. Then he slipped down the memory chute. The French expression ‘jolie-laide,’ applied to women whose beauty is of the unconventional sort, applies to Rouault too, which half explains his vanishing. Hes an acquired taste.” Read more. Georges Rouault: Judges, Clowns and Whores continues through June 9 at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, 1018 Madison Avenue, at 78th Street; (212) 744-7400 or miandn.com