“Beet juice?” asks the true property developer Nile Jarvis (performed by Matthew Rhys) early into the primary episode of Netflix’s latest thriller miniseries, The Beast in Me (2025), which is nominated for a number of Golden Globe Awards this weekend. Jarvis presents the eerily sanguine drink to his new neighbour, the novelist Agatha Wiggs (performed by Claire Danes), who’s visiting his house for the primary time. “Lowers ldl cholesterol, raises mind operate. Tastes like shit.”
Behind Jarvis, and holding pleasure of place in a bespoke area of interest, is a portray by the first-generation Summary Expressionist artist Norman Lewis, Promenade (1961). An image mild illuminates the uncooked canvas dotted with Lewis’s signature fashion of calligraphic varieties, on this occasion in pink, blue and white, and the portray frames Jarvis’s face in a number of pictures.
Norman Lewis, Promenade, 1961 © Property of Norman Lewis, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, New York
Regardless that Jarvis has simply moved into this suburban mansion and his artwork assortment is generally boxed up and pushed in opposition to naked partitions, Promenade is unpacked—one of many first issues put in on the partitions of his house workplace. Within the stairwell main as much as the primary ground, one other Lewis canvas, Road Musicians (1948), is unboxed but additionally unhung. A extra frenetic and layered composition, Road Musicians captures the power of jazz.
Each work that seem within the sequence had been high-resolution replicas, customized printed and framed after the manufacturing’s set design workforce reached a licensing settlement with the Norman Lewis Property, which is completely represented by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York. The settlement stipulated that the replicas be marked as inauthentic on their versos and required proof of destruction after filming was full. Each Lewis and the gallery are acknowledged within the credit.
A scene from The Beast in Me that includes Norman Lewis’s Road Musicians (1948) Courtesy Netflix
“These footage are extremely recognisable, signature works,” says halley okay. harrisburg, director of the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. “The Norman Lewis Property can also be very agreeable and fascinated by having Norman’s work in each excessive and low sorts of initiatives, to have visibility. They like it, they get the identical type of ‘excessive’ that we do when seeing the work in a extra mainstream, standard tradition atmosphere.”
The property, through the gallery, has granted permission for Lewis work to seem onscreen on multiple event. Shannon Nallan, a designer who labored on The Beast in Me, had beforehand integrated work by Lewis within the authorized drama tv sequence The Good Battle (2017-22). Extra not too long ago, works by Lewis (and different distinguished Black artists, together with William H. Johnson and Charles White) cameoed in Spike Lee’s newest crime thriller, Highest 2 Lowest (2025), within the house of Denzel Washington’s character.
Norman Lewis, Road Musicians, 1948 © Property of Norman Lewis, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, New York
Within the case of Lewis’s supporting function in The Beast in Me, the work are extra than simply an aesthetic choice. Based on set decorator Michael Nallan, their inclusion was a “deliberate storytelling alternative” that helped inform the character’s backstory. Jarvis was uncovered to artwork by his ex-wife, a New York gallerist and severe artwork collector, who would have helped him develop a style for traditionally vital American artists reminiscent of Lewis.
“Norman Lewis was chosen particularly as a result of his work alerts depth, intelligence and cultural consciousness with out feeling ostentatious,” Nallan says. The set design workforce even thought of whether or not the market values for Lewis made sense for Jarvis’s character, noting that one in all his canvases, Promenade, offered in 2011 for $108,000, for instance. “At these worth factors the selection feels genuine: vital, museum-quality artwork that’s attainable relatively than ultra-blue-chip, and the items themselves subtly talk Nile’s previous life with Madison, his lingering connection to her world, and the type of quiet, thought of style that aligns along with his character.”
Matthew Uebbing’s portray 10,000 Souls at As soon as options in scenes from The Beast in Me Courtesy the artist
One other connection to Jarvis’s lacking spouse, Madison, comes within the type of the downtown gallery she runs, which the set decorators full of works by modern artists. “These works weren’t chosen as ornamental background,” Nallan says. “They functioned as atmospheric cues that strengthened the sequence’ tonal undercurrent—uneasy, barely uncanny and emotionally charged.”
A number of of the 9 works by New York-based multimedia artist Matthew Uebbing that seem within the gallery scenes embrace birds, an extension of Madison’s pursuits as a loyal hen watcher. And the six works by British painter Graham Dean that dangle in Madison’s gallery had been chosen for his or her introspective high quality, full of susceptible figures seemingly inclined to risk.
Graham Dean’s Haven 2 (2021) seems in scenes from The Beast in Me Courtesy the artist
“My work are recognized for his or her psychological and emotive presence,” says Dean, who was pleasantly shocked when the manufacturing workforce approached Bridgeman Pictures to license his work for the sequence. “After I noticed the gallery scene, I observed that they selected three of the massive mendacity down determine sequence which had a visible echo.” (Within the curiosity of avoiding spoilers, we won’t develop on that echo.)
Whereas The Beast in Me is nominated within the Finest Tv Restricted Collection, Finest Efficiency by a Feminine Actor in a Restricted Collection and Finest Efficiency by a Male Actor in a Restricted Collection classes on the Golden Globes on Sunday (11 January), it already options an inventive all-star ensemble.
The Beast in Me is offered to stream on Netflix
