Two hours door to door and I arrived in Roubaix at «La Piscine». I was there earlier this year to see the Duncan-Picasso («Oh What a Pleasure» - 26th April). As for the previous visit, I arrived at midday finding a virtually empty museum - a lot of people eating in the café and a few visitors in the exhibition. This time we were allowed to take photographs which I did in a second tour around. I left three hours later. You could not move for people.
Many years ago an art teacher insisted that Chagall was only interesting in his Russian period and when he came to France, his painting became purely commercial. He lived in France between 1923 and 1939 and then again from 1948 to the end of his life, 1985. As this is the first big retrospective of his work which I have seen in some years, I was interested to see if I could prove him wrong. I think I did.
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| Garnier Opera |
Obviously if you are referring to his
illustrations for the Bible which make the Bible very readable or the
ceiling at the Opera House here in Paris, perhaps he was out to make
money
One forgets that he also spent time in the USA and other Eastern Block countries. That Mexico had a profound effect on him for the ballet «The Firebird»....
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| Maquette for Fire Bird Curtain 1945 |
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| Double Portrait au verre du vin 1917-18 |
He first comes to France in 1912 for a couple of years before returning to Berlin in 1914. The war surprised him although when in Germany, he married Bella. The majestic painting which thrones the entry of the exhibition is a remarkable dedication to love and Jewish culture where the husband is lifted onto the shoulders of guests and thrown up and down - for how many times? In the top too we see an angel flying which is probably his daughter Ida born in 1916. This painting is full of hope, love and joy and paintings remain this way until Bella dies in 1944 following some brutal infection.
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| Maternity 1959 |
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| La Fuite - Cog et Bouc 1962 |
Going back though, he returns to Paris with his wife and daughter and takes out French nationality which does not let him escape the growing anti-semitisism in France proceeding the 2nd world war when he then goes to the States, or rather New York. From 1941-1947. Strangely enough, he never learns to speak in English although his French is quite perfect by now.
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| L'Air du Temps.... |
«L’Air du Temps» which was done during his exile in New York there are two characters. A hybrid animal. A Goat? The Scapegoat which depicts the Jewish people? The animal figure here is for me something which is predicting his life. Bella is in the sky but why? Frailty of the times ? Can life go on like this? Even if Bella is with him in 1942, there seems to be a division in this picture which however colorful it is also forecasts what the outcome could be in Europe
While still in Russia he worked closely with the Russian theatre. His sets and costumes especially those for "Aleko" are so modern . The video they were showing did not do justice to the production nor to the costumes.
I think we all know «The Fire Bird» and Igor Stravinsky’s music. This had a resounding success in New York in 1945. As I child I saw this ballet in Australia and then dreamt of becoming a dancer.....
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| SKetch for Firebird |
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| Costumes for Aleko |
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| Sketch for the Clown and his Shadow 1964 |
Chagall returns to France with his second love, Virginia Mc Neil. He lives first in Vence and then in Saint Paul - this is a ceramic period. I had seen little of these works before the exhibition. He sculpts head stones for graves and even one for Bella who has been «left behind» in the USA. But these ceramics are always in relation with what is seen in his paintings.
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| In memory of Bella? |
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| 1953 - Woman in Bath |
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| Madonna et Enfant 1952 |
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| Nu Feminin et amoureux 1970? |
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| The Lovers and the Beast 1952-1962 |
There are paintings which remind him of his Parisian days and these I do find a little sombre, lacking the joy and laughter of his earlier works. Chagall is known for his colour so darker paintings lack the joy you feel in his earlier paintings.
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| La Bastille 1953 |
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| Les Rives de la Seine 1953 |
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| Self portrait with a clock after Bella died: 1945 |
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| Violnisite et femme au poisson 1965 |
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| Acrobat au coq vert 1965 |
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| Nu Mauve 1967 |
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| Nude 1950-1960 |
It seems that after a period of black and white (difficult to take due to reflexions), he then reverts to colour and a rather poetic and personnel universe develops with collages and a new creative form.
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| Sketch for Commedia dell'arte 57-58 - collage |
My Mother took me to his museum in Nice and to see the stain glass windows. This must have been in the early 70’s. We were alone with the sun pouring in and color dancing all over the glass. I can still see it. Not even those I saw in the Reims Cathedral nor in Metz ever came up to what I saw in Nice.
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| Nice |
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