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Marc Chagall 1887 -1985
Born in Russia in 1887, Chagall was brought up in a poor Jewish family in the small
town of Vitebsk. In 1910 he moved to Paris where he lived for 4 years. There he
came into contact with the work of artists who were exploring new approaches to
painting. Picasso was experimenting with Cubism at that time, and Matisse was
developing Fauvism. This was especially influential for Chagall. The Fauves (which
means wild beasts ) were experimenting with the use of strong and contrasting
colours- not the real and actual colours of things, but wild and unconnected
colours with the objects. Chagall discovered that modern painting need not be
about creating natural likenesses of places or things. Paintings could be composed
of images and colours, in whatever arrangement the artist chose. The modern
artist had complete freedom.
This freedom was exactly what Chagall wanted in his painting. He wanted to
create works from his imagination and not directly from life. Chagall said that he
became a painter because “Painting seemed to me like a window through which I
could have taken flight toward another world “When he composed pictures they
were not realistic scenes, and his colours were not used to describe actual
appearances. Instead his pictures evoke feelings or memories about places and
people. The colours give mood and meaning, and not simply the description or
real appearances.
Chagall lived most of his life in France and the USA and yet his subject manner
was drawn largely from his childhood memories in Vitebsk. He used images from
his early life. Many of them ( eg. Animals, people floating between sky and earth )
have a fairy tale quality and are derived from traditions and legends of Jewish
culture. He portrays rural peasant life, its poverty, its superstitions and its festivals
, and certain themes over and over again- the circus , the lovers, angels, animals
and the violin.
‘ I and the village’ 1911
‘I and the village’is a painting full of images arranged with complete freedom.This
si not a natural view of a village ,but a painting which constructs fragments of
village life into a complex compostion. Chagall is interested just as much in the
abstract design ( the arrangements of shapes and patterns and colours ) as in the
images themselves. And yet the painting tells us much about village life and the
importance of land and animals to the people. The flowering plant, the
harvester’s scythe, the central circle and the moon suggest the cycle of life and
the changing seasons. The cross on the neck of the peasant and the magical beads
on the animal tell of the importance of religion and superstition.This is a painting
from memory and imagination rather than copied from sight. The laws of gravity
donot apply here either, and proportion and scale are not allowed to restrict his
free arrangement of objects
Chagalls’ colours are not always natural and are often quite independent from the
subject ( the man’s green face , and a red cow ) They are chosen for effect.
It is strange however that he should have introduced a Christian symbol into this
painting . It should also be noted that Chagall produced Christian themed
paintings even though he was a Jew.
Just as different musical notes , when played togethercan produce a chord which
is pleasing to the ear, so Chagall wanted his colour arrangements to have pleasing
visual effects. Chagall loved music, which he saw as an abstract art from. Its
sounds are not the actual sounds of places or people or things, and yet it can
convey feelings and atmosphere. It can have an effect on the listener of sadness
or cheerfulness , excitement or tranquilityand it can bring to mind places and
memories. Chagall wanted the colours in his pictures to have the effect of music.