Marc Chagall

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Marc Chagall
(1887-1985)
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'My art is an extravagant art, a flaming
vermilion, a blue soul flooding over my paintings'
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• Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
• Russian painter, was one of the great
  masters of the school of Paris and was also
  acclaimed as a forerunner of surrealism.

1917
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• Marc Chagall was born Moishe Shagal
  on July 7, 1887, in Vitebsk to a poor Jewish
  family. The years of his childhood, and his
  native village became the main themes of his art.
  
• These first impressions remained in his mind
  like primeval images and were changed into
  paintings.

The flying carriage
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• In 1906, Chagall left the Jewish elementary
  school he attended and began studying at Yehuda
  Pen's school of painting in Vitebsk.
• In 1907 he moved to St. Petersburg, where
  he attended the school of the imperial Society
  for the Protection of the Arts and studied
  briefly with Leon Bakst.

yehuda
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• These were years of difficulty and poverty
  for Chagall. In the studio he had his first
  contact with the modern movement which was
  sweeping Paris.
• His pictures of this early period are
  lyrical evocations of his childhood.

1911 I and my village
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• In 1910 he moved to Paris and found a place
  in the famous "La Ruche".
• He always stressed the importance of Paris
  for his development
• "In Paris, it seems to me, I have found
  everything, but above all, the art of
  craftsmanship. I owe all that I have achieved to
  Paris, to France, whose nature, men, the very
  air, were the true school of my life and art."

Paris
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Robert and Sonia Delauney were important
influences in Chagall's life and his art. A
native Russian, Sonia made a point of including
Chagall in many of her social meetings. Robert
Delauney's use of Cubist technique and his
lyrical sense of color was a strong influence
on Chagall's assimilation of Cubist ideas.

1912 self portrait with seven
fingers
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Very early in life he was encouraged by his
mother and she managed to get him into a St
Petersburg art school. Returning to Vitebsk, he
became engaged to Bella Rosenfeld.
1910 Sabbath
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• Chagall returned to Vitebsk in 1914, where he
  was caught by the outbreak of the First World
  War. He married Bella there in 1915. He was
  appointed provincial Commissar for Fine Art in
  1917 and became involved in ambitious projects
  for a local college.

1915 The birthday
The woman with the roses
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promenade
Chagall with Bella

• Tragically Bella didn't live to see the end
  of the war, dying suddenly in 1944 just before
  peace was declared. The death of Bella stopped
  Chagall's creativity for many months.
• It was not until he met Virginia Haggard
  that he was able to rise out of his depression.
  His relationship with Virginia and more dramatic
  commissions helped him to get back into life.

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Travels encouraged New Works

• A journey to Palestine and Syria in 1931
  gave Chagall firsthand knowledge of the land,
  which he depicted in his illustrations for the
  Bible.

en-route
landleben
joie
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• In 1933 Goebbels ordered some of Chagall's
  work to be burnt. Chagall's concern for the fate
  of humanity is reflected in works of this period
  such as Solitude 1933 which conveys an
  overwhelming atmosphere of depression with the
  huddled figure of a pious Jew seemingly
  depressed, and desire for faraway Israel.

1933 Solitude
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• He began working in ceramics in 1950 and
  made his first sculptures the following year. He
  married again in 1952 to Valentina Brodsky
  ("Vava").

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1954-1976
His famous "Paris" series, a series of fantastic
scenes set against the background of views of
the city, was created between 1953 and 1956.
Adam and Eve
the dream
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• He was the greatest interpreter of the
  Bible since Rembrandt, and he used biblical
  themes in paintings, graphic works, and stained
  glass (12 windows for the medical center in
  Jerusalem, 1961).

asher
dan
reuven
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• Chagall started a new series of large
  paintings, the "Biblical Message," in 1963.

Jacobs dream
Song of songs III
Abraham and the three angels
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Honored for His Work

• Stained-glass was also the medium he used
  when he created The America Windows 1977 (Chicago
  Institute of Art) to celebrate the US birthday.
• These windows are an expression of his
  gratitude to the United States where he'd found
  safe haven during World War 2.

yis
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• Chagall continued to create great artworks
  throughout the later years of his life. In the
  1960s and 1970s, his stained glass art appeared
  in such buildings as the United Nations.

yosef
levi
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• Chagall occupied an unique place in world
  art. Even though at times he was slightly
  influenced by the modern developments in arts (as
  when he discovered Cubism, for example),
  throughout his long life he was an independent
  artist, often criticized for his lack of
  "realism" or for his lack of desire to explore
  non-objective art.

The Cattle Dealer
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The sources of his idea are found in his
childhood, in the life of countryside of Vitebsk
and its Jewish community, the Scriptures, more
surprisingly, Russian folk art and icon painting.
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• In 1973, a museum of his works alone was
  opened in Nice, France. In 1977, the Louvre
  exhibited 62 of his paintings, an extremely rare
  event for a living artist.

Chagall
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Chagall died at the age of 97 in 1985.