Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was born in Russia. The Jewish customs in his early years were the source of his deep-rooted imagination. Marc Chagall is a great man in the history of modern painting, a pastoral author who was free from all genres such as Impressionism, Cubism, and Abstract Expressionism.
His paintings present dreamy, symbolic techniques and colors. The term "surrealism" was coined to describe his works. Chagall mainly depicts green cows and horses flying in the sky, lovers lying among lilac flowers, two faces facing left and right at the same time, heads upside down or flying away, and medieval sculptures.
Chinese name: Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (Taiwan translation)
Foreign name: Маркшагал
Nationality: Belarus
Nationality: Jewish
Birthplace: Vitebsk, Russia
Date of birth: July 7, 1887
Date of death: March 28, 1985
Occupation: Painter, Designer
Main achievements: Oil painting
Representative works: "The Village and Me", "Birthday", "Seven Fingers" Self-Portrait"
Character Profile
Marc Chagall (Russian name Маркшагал) (1887-1985) was born in Russia. The Jewish customs in his early years were the source of his deep-rooted imagination.
Chagall was born into a poor Jewish family in Vychebsk, Russia. From this family background he acquired a wonderful repertoire of Russian and Jewish folk tales, an inheritance of a sense of fairy-tale fantasy, and an affectionate immersion in the Jewish religious tradition.
Position within the industry
Marc Chagall, 1887-1985. French painter, printmaker and designer of Belarusian origin. His works rely on inner poetic power rather than the logical rules of painting to combine images from personal experience with formal symbolism and aesthetic factors. Chagall worked almost to the end of his life. His oil paintings are brightly colored and unique. He often incorporates Jewish folklore into his works and draws materials from innocent and simple images of nature. He is a painter who pursues innocence and simplicity from the Jewish residents of Russia to Paris. After experiencing modern art experiments and baptisms such as Cubism and Surrealism, he developed a unique personal style and occupied an important position in the history of modern painting.
Family background
Marc Chagall was born in Vitebsk, a small city in northeastern Belarus. His father was an ordinary worker who wanted to train his son to become a learned rabbi. Therefore, Chagall studied Jewish classics in a yeshiva until he was 16 years old. But he had a special interest in painting since childhood and showed keen observation skills. According to Chagall's own book My Painting is My Memory, his mother did not approve of him becoming a painter but a shop agent. In Wien's studio, the studio director accepted him out of irresponsibility. After studying for a few months, he found that his teacher was not as good at painting as he was, so he left his hometown to study in St. Petersburg. Later, he went to Paris and other places to observe and communicate with his peers, and finally became a master. His paintings mainly show the life of Russian Jews, and he himself has always maintained close ties with Jewish culture and religion. He said: "If I were not a Jew, then I would never become a painter. I might become a completely different person from who I am today. My only requirement in life is not to strive to be close to Rembrandt, Goledin, Tintorik and other world art masters, but strive to get closer to the spirit of my fathers and ancestors."
Painting style
Under the influence of Marc Chagall's French art, the reputation of the new Baxter Studio rose to prominence. It has the splendor of modern art and remains in touch with France. Chagall entered this studio and was deeply shocked. In 1941, he decided to go to the United States at the invitation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He followed the events in Europe with anguish, and his style changed dramatically amid the outcry over the suffering and threats to the freedom of his own race. In September 1944, his wife Para Chagall died. As a result, strong memories of the past and more distant periods permeate his works, making the painter like a character in the painting and transcending life with unusual skill. He completed a large-scale work titled "Around Her" that he had begun working on in 1937. It became a synthesis of all his favorite subjects, centered around the memory of Parra. In 1945, Chagall created the background, curtain and costumes for Stravinsky's ballet "The Firebird".
In 1947, he returned to France to settle down. From 1949 onwards, he lived in Vence, took out his past drafts and began to create a series of new oil paintings, filling the scenery of Paris with magical memories. Chagall's contribution to contemporary art has become increasingly important.
Died
In 1941, Andre Breton, who studied the founder of Surrealism, pointed out: From 1911 onwards, his art overturned the concept of morphological components and laws. obstacle. Chagall died on March 28, 1985 in Saint-Paul, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
Major Events
Marc Chagall
On July 7, 1887, Marc Chagall was born into a large Jewish family in western Russia.
He came to Paris in 1910 to develop. He exhibited his works at the Salon des Indépendants and held a personal exhibition in Berlin in 1914. His return home to visit family and friends coincided with the outbreak of World War I and then the Bolshevik Revolution.
Returned to Paris in 1923. Began working in printmaking in Paris, producing hundreds of etchings for many commemorative editions of books.
In 1941, he left Paris for New York to design the stage background and costumes for Stravinsky's ballet "The Firebird".
After settling in France again in 1948, he produced many stained glass windows and murals for some public buildings in Jerusalem, Paris and the United States.
Since 1949, he has been living in Vence, taking out his past drafts and starting to create a series of new oil paintings
On March 28, 1985, Chagall was in the French Maritime Alps St. Paul dies.
Career
Family
On July 7, 1887, Marc Chagall was born in Vitebsk, a town in western Russia not far from the Polish border. A poor Jewish family. In addition to him, there are 8 children in the family. His family, like most of the approximately 20,000 Jews in Vitebsk, was very poor, but not completely destitute. The father worked in a herring warehouse and the mother ran a small shop selling fish, flour, sugar and condiments. From this family, Chagall obtained a valuable asset that he could not exhaust in his lifetime, which was the cultural tradition based on a large number of Russian and Jewish folk tales. Chagall, who has been immersed in it since childhood, has a unique and fairy-tale fantasy feeling, which will be revealed everywhere in his future artistic creation.
Boyhood
As a boy, Chagall first attended a Jewish religious elementary school and then a local public school that taught in Russian. After he learned the basic knowledge of drawing in school, he studied painting in the studio of local realist painter J. Payne. In 1907, Chagall went to St. Petersburg, studied on and off for three years, and finally devoted himself to L. Baxter, who was beginning his glorious career as a stage designer.
Exemplary works by Chagall in his early maturity are the chilling "Dead Man" (1908), which features a rooftop violinist; and "My Betrothed in Black Gloves" (1909), here , a portrait becomes a great opportunity to experiment with black and white.
Assistance for living expenses
In 1910, Chagall went to Paris with living expenses provided by a patron in St. Petersburg. After living in a room in Montparnasse for a year and a half, he moved to a studio on the edge of town in a shabby residential area known as the "Beehive" for bohemian artists. Here, he met the avant-garde poets B. Sandral and M. Jacob and C. Apollinaire, and some young painters who will surely become famous in the future - Expressionist C. Soutine, Abstract Colorist R. Delaunay, Cubist A. Glatz, J. Mesange, F. Léger and A. Lot. In such a group of people, almost every bold attempt at painting was encouraged, and Chagall was inspired to quickly develop his unique poetic and seemingly unreasonable style that had already begun to take shape in Russia. At the same time, influenced by the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Fauvist paintings he saw in various museums and commercial galleries in Paris, he abandoned the sombre tones he had often used back home.
Golden Period
It is generally believed that the four years of his first stay in the French capital were Chagall's golden period. Representative works of this period include "My Seven Fingers" (1912), "My Village and Me" (1911), "Homage to Apollinaire" (1911-1912), "Calvary" (1912), "The Violin Player" (1912) and "Paris from the Window" (1913). In these paintings, Chagall has basically established his painting style for the next 60 years. The colors he used, although occasionally light, began to take on a final character of intricacy and interplay. The images are often bizarre and eccentric, often upside down and randomly placed in certain places on the canvas. The effect is sometimes similar to a movie montage, and is obviously deliberately designed to suggest the content of dreams. The general atmosphere may include a Yiddish joke, a Russian mythology, or a revue performance. The main character is often the handsome young painter himself, with curly hair and an Oriental face. Memories of childhood and Vitebsk were already one of the main sources of ideas.
First solo exhibition
After exhibiting works at the annual Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne in Paris, in 1914 Chagall held his first solo exhibition in Berlin in the gallery of the modernist publication Assault The first solo exhibition left a deep impression on the German Expressionist Group. He went to see the exhibition and returned to Vitebsk just in time for the outbreak of the First World War. At this time, he painted local scenes in a more realistic style and a series of studies of elderly people. Examples of these studies include "Jews Praying", or "The Rabbi of Vitebsk" (1914), and "Wearing Green" Clothes of the Jew" (1914).
In 1915, Chagall married Bella Rosenfeld, the daughter of a wealthy Vitebsk businessman. After her marriage, Bella appeared in many paintings, including a painting titled "Birthday" (1915-1923), which depicts the lover's elopement; and another "Double Portrait and a Glass of Wine" (1917), which is a work of art. vivid.
October Revolution
During the Russian October Revolution in 1917, Chagall initially enthusiastically supported the revolution, served as the People's Commissar of Arts in the Vitebsk region, and began to establish an art academy and museum there. grand plan. But after two and a half years of intense activity that saw growing aesthetic and political bickering, he gave up his work and moved to Moscow. There, he once turned his attention to the theater, working for the Jewish writer S. Alechem's plays produced stage sets and costumes and murals for the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. Chagall bid farewell to Russia in 1922 and first went to Berlin, where he discovered that a large number of paintings he left behind in 1914 had disappeared. In 1923, he settled in Paris again, this time with his wife and daughter.
Learning engraving
Chagall studied engraving techniques when he was in Berlin. Through the introduction of his friend Sandlar, he met A., a businessman in Paris who dealt in art. Worrall, who immediately commissioned him as N. A set of illustrations were etched for a deluxe edition of Gogol's novel "Dead Souls," thus establishing his long career as a printmaker. Over the next three years, he produced 107 full-page plates for Gogol's masterpieces. At this time, Vollard had another idea: to publish La Fontaine's "Fables" in imitation of the 18th-century edition, with color illustrations. Chagall produced 100 advertising color paintings for reproduction, but soon learned that the colors he used were too complex and the printing process was ineffective, so he switched to black-and-white etching, and the entire plate was completed in 1931. At that time, Vollar had another idea: to etch a set of illustrations for the Bible. In 1939, due to the start of World War II and the death of Volard, the work plan was stopped. By this time, Chagall had completed 66 plates. By the end of the war, the total income had reached 105 yuan. Paris publisher E. Tyriade picked up many of Vollard's legacy and published "Dead Souls" in 1948, adding an etching at the beginning of each chapter, adding 11 pictures, for a total of 118 pictures; in 1952, he published La Fontaine's "Dead Souls". "Fables", plus 2 cover etchings, totaling 102 pieces; "The Bible" was published in 1956. In addition to these greatly delayed accomplishments, Chagall also produced a number of smaller etching collections, many individual plates, and a considerable number of color lithographs and monotypes. During the 1920s and early 1930s, the number of large-scale paintings he produced decreased and, according to many critics, the quality also declined. But in any case, they are obviously more poetic and more and more popular with the general public. Examples are "The Bride and Groom and the Eiffel Tower" (1928) and "The Circus Show" (1931). But as Hitler came to power and the threat of a new world conflict grew, the painter began to have an entirely different vision, reflected in the majestic White Crucifix (1938).
Etchings
During the interwar period, Chagall traveled around the world, in Brittany in 1924, in southern France in 1926, and in Palestine in 1931 ( Preparing for Bible etchings), worked in the Netherlands, Spain, Poland and Italy, 1932-1937. In 1931, the French translation of "My Life", which had been written in Russian, was published. In 1933, he held a large-scale retrospective exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Basel, Switzerland. In 1939, he received the Carnegie Fellowship, establishing his reputation as an established modern master.
After the outbreak of World War II, Chagall moved to the Loire region of France. Thereafter, as Nazi persecution of Jews throughout Europe became increasingly a reality, he moved south repeatedly. Finally, in July 1941, he took his family to the United States to seek refuge. Chagall spent most of the following years in or near New York City. Chagall continued to develop the themes he had already used in France for a time in his paintings. Typical works of this period are "Yellow Crucifixion of Christ" (1943) and "Feathers and Flowers" (1943). However, his wife Bella died in 1944, and Chagall's memories of her, often set in Vitebsk, became a recurring theme in his paintings. In "By Her Side" (1945), her image is that of a weeping wife and dreamy bride, and in "The Wedding Candle" (1945) and "Nocturne" (1947), she is the bride again. 1945 New York City performance I. Chagall designed the backdrop and costumes for Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird. American art critics and collectors were not always favorable to his work, and a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1946 and a few months later at the Art Institute of Chicago gave them the opportunity to correct their views. .
Residing in France
In 1948, Chagall settled in France again, first in the suburbs of Paris and finally near Vence and St. Paul on the Mediterranean coast of the French Riviera. In 1952, Chagall married Vava Brodsky and, at the age of 65, began what could almost be called a new artistic career.
However, commonplace, poetic, and memory-derived themes continue to appear in his work. From 1953 to 1956, while not forgetting his hometown of Vitebsk, Chagall created a series of paintings out of his passion for Paris. In 1958, the Paris Opera staged M. He designed the sets and costumes for Ravel's ballet Daphne et Chloé. After 1958, he designed many stained glass window paintings, first for the Metz Cathedral (1958-1960) and the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center Hall in Jerusalem (1960-1961). In 1964 he completed window paintings for a church in Fulton, New York, and a new ceiling painting for the Paris Opera House. Two years later, two large murals, "The Source of Music" and "The Triumph of Music," were completed for the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York. When the Metropolitan Opera performed Mozart's "The Magic Flute" in 1967, he created the sets and costumes. In 1973, the Marc Chagall Museum of Biblical Revelations held a dedication ceremony in Nice, France. In 1977, France respected him and held a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre Museum in Paris. In the same year, Chagall's "Window on America" ??was unveiled at the Art Institute of Chicago.
A host of images, including giant bouquets, sad clowns, eloping lovers, exotic animals, biblical prophets and rooftop violinists, made Chagall an outstanding innovation in 20th-century Paris. One of the most popular characters in the family. He uses rich colors and smooth brushwork to express this dreamlike theme. His works reflect his familiarity with expressionism, cubism, and even abstraction and other various schools before 1914, but he still maintains his unique painting style. Critics sometimes grumble about the artist's prolific output, saying that it is often sentimental, of varying quality, and that it repeats too many themes, but everyone agrees: in his best work he has reached a very high level in modern art. A level of visual metaphor that few can hope to achieve.
On March 28, 1985, Chagall died in Saint-Paul, Alpes-Maritimes, France. What he left to the world is his paintings full of deep nostalgia: "Even when I came to Paris, my shoes were still stained with Russian soil; in a foreign land thousands of miles away, the hand that stretched out from my consciousness My feet keep me standing on the soil that nourished me, and I cannot and cannot dust the Russian soil off my shoes. "This is Chagall.
Personal evaluation
Abstract materials
Marc Chagall, a Russian-born artist. Chagall is famous for his dreamlike, bizarre imagery and brightly colored canvas paintings. Among his works are two large-scale oil paintings designed for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City (1966). Franz Meyer believed that the "new natural feeling" in the paintings of 1937-39 was the result of Chagall's growing sense of security in his personal affairs during that period. Chagall's works follow a timeless theme that can be applied to any era and any society, and this theme can remind people of the continuity of life itself. After Chagall returned to Russia, because he had no previous works to compare with for inspiration and competition, he had to change his tune again and specialize in portraiture and life scene paintings. Chagall's love for Béna has always been a constant inspiration in his paintings. In France, Chagall resumed the work of illustrating the Bible that he had begun as early as 1931, this time in a new, freer style.
Style Characteristics
His style is both sophisticated and childish, and combines reality and fantasy in the composition of colors. Because his country demanded a certain type of art, he was forced to travel far and wide, traveling back and forth between the United States and France. Chagall was a prolific painter, and his works include paintings, mosaics, stage designs, tapestry paintings, etc. His works are found in many public buildings, such as the Paris Opera House and the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Chagall was a painter who pursued innocence and simplicity and came to Paris from Jewish residents in the Russian countryside.
Personal anecdotes
Most of the people living in the "Beehive" in Montparnasse are young artists from Eastern European countries. When they pass by the patio noisily in small groups, He always threw pebbles at the window of Chagall's room and asked him to hang out with him. But Chagall rarely participated. He lived a pious and serious life and often worked alone until late at night.
Chagall was born in Vichebsk, a Belarusian city where Jews accounted for 45% of the population. When he lived in Paris from 1910 to 1914, in his own words, he brought The mood of an exile. He left Russia for most of his life, but Russia never left him. Although he mentioned France as his second birthplace. In Russia the colors are black, white and gray, while in Paris the colors are multicolored. His Russian roots and Jewish background are evident in his works.
Chagall believes that painting is first of all to lay out various expressions on the plane: beasts, birds, people, paying attention to the visual effect of the picture structure, and other additional structural considerations are secondary. He objects to words like "fantasy" and "symbol". He said: "Our inner world is reality, and it may be more real than the outside world." He also said: "Calling all illogical things fantasy, myth and weirdness is actually admitting that one does not understand nature." Xia Gall emphasized that he was different from Picasso, saying: "Picasso painted with his belly, I paint with my heart.
"Most of his energy between the two wars was spent on illustrating several classical masterpieces: Gogol's "Dead Souls" (107 pictures), La Fontaine's "Fables" (100 pictures) and "The Bible" (108 pictures)
In 1964, when André Malraux was Minister of Culture in the de Gaulle government, he asked Chagall to paint the ceiling of the Paris Opera House. With people floating in mid-air, it has the innocence of fairy tales and the mystery of heaven. It is actually very harmonious with the so-called "Napoleon III" style designed by Garnier for the opera house in the 19th century. The glass pyramid added to the Louvre courtyard by I.M. Pei in the 1980s is known as the perfect combination of modern art and classical style in Paris architecture.
Chagall's painting is on the ceiling. This was not the first time for him, but he was not so lucky last time. Before the outbreak of the European War in 1914, Chagall had left Paris for his hometown for vacation. When the war began, he could only stay in Vicebsk until 1923. Back in Paris. During the war, most of the tenants of the "Peak Box" also left. Some returned to join the war, and some went to make a living elsewhere. The concierge of the "Beehive" apartment walked into Chagall's studio and saw what was inside. Some of the paintings were very thick and apparently waterproof. I happily took a few of them into my dovecote-like hut, demolished the leaky roof, and used Chagall's paintings to plug the leaks
Famous Quotes
·Many people say that my paintings are poetic, fantasy, and wrong. In fact, on the contrary, my paintings are realistic.
·I don’t like words like “fantasy” and “symbolism”. In my inner world, everything is real, probably more realistic than the world we witness.
·Our inner world is. The truth may be more real than the outside world. Calling all illogical things fantasy, myth and weirdness is actually admitting that you don’t understand nature.
·Picasso painted with his belly, and I paint with my heart. .
·My mother’s love for me is so great that I have to use my hard work to verify that this love is worth it.
——Marc Chagall (Russian painting master)