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Marc Chagall: Early Works from Russian Collections at the Jewish Museum, New York from April 29-October 14, 2001
By Laura Modigliani and Susan Delson
Like most emigrés, Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was a master of fusion. Born in the small Russian city of Vitebsk (now in Belarus), he lived most of his life in France—the epicenter of modern art in the early 20th century. But while he was familiar with a range of modern art movements and styles—and not above incorporating them into his work—Chagall continued to draw creative inspiration from his Russian-Jewish youth. Memory, fantasy, folk-art traditions, and an ardent yearning for his lost homeland all found expression in his sophisticated, vibrant style.
At The Jewish Museum, Marc Chagall: Early Works from Russian Collections offers an unprecedented look at Chagall's art before he left Russia for good in 1923. The close to 50 paintings and drawings on view come directly from Russian museums, and most have never been seen before in this country. In addition, the exhibition features 13 paintings by Chagall's earliest teacher, Yehuda Pen, an artist little known in the West. The show explores two contrasting aspects of Chagall's Russian years, and their impact on his work: the timeless world of the Eastern European Jewish shtetl, and the sweep of global events, especially World War I and the Russian Revolution.
The son of devout Hasidic Jews, Chagall grew up in an intensely religious atmosphere, where spiritual exultation lent an almost hallucinatory dimension to everyday life. While still a child, Chagall announced that he wanted to become a painter; and in 1906 he began studying at "The Artist Pen's School of Drawing and Painting." There, he was introduced not only to modern art, but to the idea of a modern Jewish art.
In 1909, Chagall met and fell in love with Bella Rosenfeld, the daughter of a wealthy Jewish
jeweler in Vitebsk. A year later, he left for Paris, where he spent four years developing his distinctive style and gaining recognition among the European avant-garde. Far from the dulling poverty of Vitebsk, his canvases glowed with color, taking on the forms of Cubism and a vivid Russian Expressionism. And his memories gained a newfound air of drama and romance, epitomized in the exuberant dancing figures of The Jewish Wedding (c. 1910).
Returning for a visit to Bella in 1914, Chagall was trapped in Russia by the onset of World War I. The couple married in 1915, and Chagall spent the next eight years re-establishing his roots through a series of works: self-portraits, lyrical, floating depictions of himself and Bella, and stark scenes of Vitebsk during the war, such as Soldiers with Bread (1914-15). After the revolution, he happily served the new Bolshevik government, both in Moscow and in Vitebsk. But he was ultimately forced out by adamant proponents of abstract art, including Kazimir Malevich and El Lissitzky. By 1922, Chagall was ready to head back to Paris.
But he never left Vitebsk behind. "My homeland is always in my paintings," he later wrote. And in its blend of traditional and modern, spiritual and secular, Vitebsk and Paris, his art combines the best of all worlds. On view April 29-October 14.
MUSEUMS NEW YORK • SPRING 2001
Key Terms:
Marc Chagall
France
Modern
20th Century
Fantasy
Folk Art
Russia
Russian
World War I
Russian Revolution
Hasidim
Religious
Jewish
Paris
Cubism
Expressionism
War
Kazimir Malevich
Paris
See Also:
Judaica
Surrealism
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