“If I create
from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” -
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall,
(born July 7th, 1887, Vitebsk, Belorussia, Russian Empire [now in
Belarus] -died March 28th, 1985, Saint-Paul, Alpes-Maritimes,
France), Belorussian-born French painter, printmaker, and designer. He composed
his images based on emotional and poetic associations, rather than on rules of
pictorial logic. Predating Surrealism, his early works, such as “I and the
Village” (1911), were among the first expressions of psychic reality in modern
art. His works in various media include sets for plays and ballets, etchings
illustrating the Bible, and stained-glass windows.
Chagall was the
oldest of nine children in a working-class Jewish family. At age 20 he began to
study painting, first in Vitebsk, then in St. Petersburg. His distinctive style
was already beginning to appear in his early works. In 1910 he began four years of living in
Paris, a city that attracted him for the rest of his life. In Paris, he became
acquainted with art movements of the time, including Fauvism and Cubism. He
also became acquainted with leading artists of the time, including Braque,
Picasso, Delaunay, Leger, and others.
He held a very
successful, one-man show in Berlin in 1914, as part of an eventual journey
home. At the outbreak of WWI, Chagall returned home to Vitebsk, where he
married Bella Rosenfeld. He worked in Vitebsk for several years and became
director of the Vitebsk Academy of Arts. He moved to Moscow in 1920 and worked
on stage decors and painted panels for the avant-garde Jewish Theatre. After it
was made clear he would not have the freedom to develop, given the political
realities of Marxist socialism, he left Moscow for Europe in 1923.
After arriving
in France, he met French art dealer Ambroise Vollard and started creating
etchings for future publications. These were not published until years later
due to Vollard’s death and WWII. Chagall’s paintings were shown at galleries in
New York as well as Paris, Berlin, and other European cities. He was
commissioned by Vollard to produce a series of etchings illustrating the Old
Testament version of the Bible. These were also not published until after WWII.
During his travels, Chagall fell in love with the Cote d’Azur. Chagall
eventually moved away from Paris to a villa near Porte d’Auteuil.
Chagall
continued to work in France despite the growing influence of the Nazi movement
and the invasion of France by Germany in 1939. He was eventually convinced by
his daughter Ida to leave France. Marc and Bella first travelled to Marseilles,
and eventually left for the United States in May of 1941. Their daughter Ida
joined them a short time later. Marc Chagall
arrived in New York City in June 1941. In addition to paintings, he worked on
theatre sets and costumes.
His paintings
were exhibited in New York, Chicago, and Paris. His wife Bella died suddenly in
1944 due to a viral infection. Marc ceased all work for almost a year. In 1946,
after the end of WWII the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City held an
exhibition showing 40 years of Chagall’s work. He had become very well known.
He began making plans to return to France.
Chagall returned to Paris in 1948 and signed Teriade to publish his
graphic works. He settled in Vence, in Provence in 1950. In addition to
painting, he continued to create graphic works. Many of his earlier etchings
and lithographs were finally published in the early 1950’s. His daughter Ida
introduced him to Valentine Brodsky, whom he later married.
In this period,
he expanded the mediums in which he worked to include ceramics, stone
sculptures, mosaics, and tapestries. In
1958, he designed scenery and costumes for the ballet “Daphnis and Chloe” for
the Paris Opera. This led to other public commissions in the 1960s, including
stained glass windows for the Hadassah Synagogue near Jerusalem, the United
Nations, and several cathedrals in Europe. He designed a new ceiling for the Paris
Opera House and panels for the Lincoln Center in New York. He also produced
what many consider his best graphic works, the “Daphnis and Chloe” suite of lithographs
in 1961.
In 1966, Chagall
moved from Vence to St. Paul de Vence (still in Provence). Chagall’s reputation
continued to grow. He continued painting, producing graphic works, and working
on public commissions. His works were exhibited at the galleries and museums
throughout the world, including the Louvre and Petit Palais in Paris. He
produced the America Windows for America’s Bicentennial celebration in 1977 in
gratitude for America taking his family in during WWII. These windows can be
viewed today at the Art Institute of Chicago.
He died March 28, 1985 in St. Paul de Vence, where he was buried. His
long, prolific career and distinctive themes and use of colour make him one of
the acknowledge masters of 20th Century modern art.
“The Falling
Angel” of 1922 above is typical of the artist’s highly individual work, with
bold colour and striking, audacious forms that draw the viewer’s eye in and
make it swirl around the canvas in a wonderful tour of delights. The spots of
bright colour shine from the gloom of the background and make the viewer emote
together with the artist, and the response becomes a deeply affecting one. The
clash of religious images, Jewish and Christian is prevented by the shared
common form of the falling angel, which highlights that the religious
differences between the two belief systems is perhaps not as great as one would
think and that the shared symbols, faith and philosophy unite rather than
divide. The image of the falling angel is nevertheless one that causes disquiet
and is a premonition of the changing political landscape in Europe and the
world, a presage of the raw horrors of WWII ahead.
