Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall (yidich: מאַרקשאַגאַל; Russian: МаркЗахаровичШагал; Belorusse: МаркЗахаравiчШаґал), or of its true name Moishe Zakharovich Shagalov (biél. МойшаЗахаравічШагалаў) (Moishe Segal) is a painter French (as from 1935) Jewish born on July 7th, 1887 with Vitebsk, in Bielorussia (which belonged then to the Russia tsarist), and dead the March 28th 1985 with Saint-Paul de Vence.

It is one of the artists installed in France most known of the 20th century with Picasso (1881 - 1973) and Matisse (1869 - 1954).

Biography

Elder of a family of 9 children it starts to work in workshops at the end of its studies at the school of the fine arts of Saint-Pétersbourg. In 1910 it leaves to study with Paris thanks to a purse, and exposes its work for the first time in 1914. It is pilot there pictorial movements such as the finishing fauvism and the incipient cubism. The first inspires to him the pure, merry and clear color, the second a certain déconstruction of the object. Nevertheless never Chagall will not adhere fully to a movement or a school. While adopting Paris like its second birthplace, he does not forget his Russian origins, for proof even when he paints the bridges of the Seine or the Eiffel tower, one can recognize elements of decoration inspired of his memories of childhood which will never leave it.

In 1914 it is of return to Vitebsk for one short duration thinks he, but the first world war prevents any return to Paris. For this period Chagall paints especially the life of the Jewish community of its birthplace.

It turns over in 1922 to Berlin then to Paris. Its works are known with the the United States, where exposures are organized. At the beginning of the Années 1930 it travels much with its family, but in 1935 it takes French nationality to flee the anti-semitism of the Central Europe. In 1941, in front of the German projection it leaves for America. His wife, Bleated, dies in 1944; this event marks the choice of its subjects at that time.

After the war works of Chagall are again exposed in Europe. It recrosses the Atlantic in 1948, to settle with Vence, in France where it helps Frans Krajcberg to leave for the Brésil.
It remarie in 1952 with Valentina Brodsky (1887-1985).

In 1923, Chagall becomes acquainted with A.Vollard, merchant and book publisher which will order to him in 1928 in particular thirty gouaches illustrating the Fables of the Fountain, but more especially of the illustrations for the Bible (1930). After its voyage in Palestine, Chagall describes the Bible “like the greatest source of poetry of all times” and consequently he says “to have sought this reflection in the life and art”. Start then for Chagall a new era of artistic creation. Henceforth, it initially devotes its work to the biblical set of themes translating the Scriptures into gouaches then in engravings. This monumental work is at the origin of the biblical Message which proposes a decorative cycle reporting the Biblical story, finished in 1966. Chagall makes of it gift at the French State, which, to the great happiness of Chagall, exposes it to Louvre before inaugurating in 1973 the National museum of the biblical Message in Nice, in the presence of André Malraux.

Maeght sells its works through the whole world. Its techniques diversify: engravings, mosaics, stained glasses… It continues to paint decorations, designs costumes for the opera of the Magic Flute .

It finishes its life with Saint-Paul de Vence, in France, famous and recognized in the whole world.

Style and techniques

One can attach Chagall to the current Surréaliste, of which it is one of the major components, since its work leaves a big part to its imagination and its dreams. So of two words, one could characterize his work, one would speak about “oneiric chromatism”.

" He sleeps, he is waked up, He takes a church and he paints with a church, He takes a cow and he paints with a cow, With a sardine… " (Blaise Cendrars)

It was tested with many graphic techniques: Gouache, Watercolour, Pastel, Ink, Joining, Engraving on copper, Stained glass and Lithography.

Psychological portrait

Although sometimes committed, its work full with references to the country of its childhood, the Jewish Russia, often seems to completely escape the Guerre S which surround it.

It can make share its feelings through colors very sharp and full with lightness. When it paints its couple flying over its birthplace, it shows a spirit Bohème and often detached of the Réalité. Hand in the hand with his/her partner, it then expresses a omnipresent Amour and a benevolent glance on the world. Its work is Jewish Théâtre in turn, message biblical, Rêve S or images like exit of sound unconsciousness:

" My circus is played in the sky, it is played in the clouds among the chairs, it is played in the window where the lumière" is reflected; (Marc Chagall).

The artist seems to be posed in Observateur world, of a world richly coloured as seen through stained glasses.

Works

White Crucifixion : is a committed work of Chagall. It denounces there the Stalinist mode , the exactions Nazis and the oppression whose Jews are victims.
the Jewish Theater .
Adam and Eve , 1912
the Opera Garnier: the ceiling is painted by Marc Chagall in 1964.
the Emigrant (1945-1950) estimated at 40.000 euros in 2005.
the Circus .
the animosity of the men in the search of being able .
Daphnis and Chloé .
Seen of Paris .
Homage to Apollinaire , 1911-1912
stained glasses in the church Fraumünster of Zurich.
Six Stained glasses in the church of Projecting the.
Last nine Stained glasses in the Saint-Etienne church of Mainz.
the ceiling of the Opera of Paris
the Birth , 1910, Kunsthaus Museum with Zurich
the Village , 1911, New York, Museum of Modern art.
Violiniste , 1911 and 1914, Museum of Düsseldorf.
the blue House , 1920, M.A.M.A.C., Liege
Loneliness , 1933, Tel Aviv Museum
Job , 1975

Many stained glasses in Lorraine in particular:

Three Stained glasses in the Saint-Etienne Cathedral of Metz.
Peace, a monumental stained glass (12 m in height on 7 m 50 broad) in the vault of Cordeliers to Sarrebourg.

Like in Champagne:

Three stained glasses in the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Rheims: the tree of Jessé, two wills and great hours of Rheims.

External bonds

Catalog reasoned of the work engraved
known and unknown Chagall with the Large palace
More on the life of Chagall
Marc Chagall: A Virtual Art gallery
Marc Chagall on Arts-up
Marc Chagall in Artcyclopedia
'' Vidéo: '' Marc Chagall in 1967, Swiss visit in , a file of the French-speaking Switzerland Television

Random links: