The Russian artist Marc Chagall {shah-gahl'}
(also known as: Mark Zakharovich Shagal), b. July 7, 1887 (or 1889?), d. Mar. 28, 1985, created
a genre virtually his own with his lively, large-scale renderings of Russian village life, as
filtered through the prism of Yiddish folklore, and his illustrations of folk tales and Bible
stories.
"The Creation of Man"
by Marc Chagall
Though Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was never part of any art movement, he borrowed techniques
and ideas from contemporaries whenever it suited his purpose. "The Creation of Man" (1956-58)
belongs to his later period, when his work was imbued with religious expression.
Chagall's Jewish heritage and his reliance on the culture of
the shtetl (East European Jewish village) for his inspiration and
subject matter provide a link between two otherwise separate careers.
He was trained in Saint Petersburg and at an early age came under the
lasting influence of Leon Bakst and the Russian ballet.
Chagall's highly
imaginative and very personal style took shape after he moved (1910)
to Paris, where he became associated with the celebrated school of
Paris. His dreamlike images had some of the characteristics later
associated with surrealism. I and My Village (1911; Museum of
Modern Art, New York) dates from this period. Chagall returned to
Russia in 1914, and at first welcomed the Russian Revolution of 1917.
He became commissar of fine arts (1918) in his native Vitebsk and
director (1919-20) of the local art academy. Disagreements with the
suprematist Kasimir Malevich, however, resulted in Chagall's
departure for Moscow, where he designed sets for the Karmerny State
Jewish Theater.
His return to Paris
in 1923 inaugurated a second career, not only as a painter with a
rich, poetic sense of fantasy and color, but also as a graphic artist
of distinction. The Bride and Groom of the Eiffel Tower (1939;
artist's collection, Saint-Paul, France) is representative of this
second period, as are his illustrations for La Fontaine's Fables
(commissioned 1925, published 1952) and for the Bible (commissioned
1930, published 1957); both projects were commissioned by the
renowned Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard. At the suggestion of
New York's Museum of Modern Art, Chagall spent World War II in the
United States, where he again designed for the ballet, including
Stravinsky's Firebird (1945).
Chagall's later work,
infused with strong religious overtones, includes stained-glass windows
(1960-61) for the Hadassah-Hebrew University hospital synagogue in
Jerusalem and mosaics and tapestries (1966) for the Israeli Knesset.
The popular success of his designs for the dome of the Paris Opera in
1964 led to a commission (1966) for two enormous murals in the foyer
of New York's Metropolitan Opera House. At the age of 90 Chagall
became the first living artist to be exhibited at the Louvre. A
Chagall museum is located in Nice, France.
Anniversary Flowers (1947)
Take a close-up view of this Chagall masterpiece in the permanent collection
at Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida.
Chagall for Children
At the Kohl Children's Museum in Wilmette, Illinois, an interactive exhibit
allows children to construct their own Chagall stained glass and make discoveries
about light, color, and reflection. Using a computer's palette and touchscreen,
change details in select Chagall works; or move objects, positions, and figures
with a magnetized art replica.
The Chagall Windows
Dedicated on February 6th, 1962, as part of Hadassah's Golden Anniversary celebration,
the Synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center is illuminated by sunlight
which streams through the twelve magnificent Chagall Windows.
CGFA - Virtual Art Museum
Carol L. Gerten maintains an impressive image library of meticulously
scanned works from hundreds of renowned artists, including this collection
featuring 15 of Chagall's paintings.
Marc Chagall: 1887-1985
by Jacob Baal-Teshuva, Marc Chagall
Hardcover - 280 pages
Published February 1998 by Taschen America Llc.
Usually ships within 2-3 days.
List Price: $39.99
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ISBN: 3822882712
Henry Miller once described Marc Chagall as a "poet with the wings of a painter." The pages
of Chagall are filled with images that prove the writer's words true. Though Chagall is
remembered primarily as a painter, his artistic vision expressed itself in many other forms,
including sculpture, mosaics, and stained glass windows...
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Chagall Quotations:
"When I am finishing a picture I hold some God-made object up to it -- a rock,
a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand -- as a kind of final test. If the
painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic.
If there's a clash between the two, it is bad art."
(1)
"Only love interests me, and I am only in contact with things
that revolve around love."
(2)
"In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which
provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love."
(3)
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