"LIVING WITH" CHAGALL

I wonder if I had known that there was to be a retrospective of Chagall in Paris starting in February this year f I would have gone to Roubaix in November last year !
 (see
WITH CHAGALL COLOUR IS MAGIC AND DARKNESS TOO (29/11/2012).

I am pleased to have seen two major exhibitions of his work within a couple of months. In November, I was trying to reconciliate periods. Before he left France in 1941 and afterwards when he returned in 1948. I am still struggling with his  last years - and there were many of them, as he died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (south of France) in 1985. 

The exhibition at the Luxembourg museum helped me to go further in my analysis. Once again this was a big presentation and there was not one work which I had seen in Roubaix. Many I did know but as Roubaix was still fresh in my mind it showed just how wide his pallette was. Not to mention that there were many private collectors too. «A life between war and peace» as the exhibition is titled, describes it very well. The different periods  along with this map show just how traveled he was.


The Cruxifixion 1940
A very young artist when he arrived in Paris in 1911. He was nostalgic and missing his country and culture. Probably his early life in Paris helped to forge his artistic ability.  His Jewish background influenced his work and yet  there seems to be a relationship with christianity. This is perhaps why I can relate much more easily to his religious painting as there is the «mixture» of cultes. Many of his cruxificitions or biblical paintings  are much more touching to me than some of the Renaissance masters I have studied. 

In his early period, in France or even when he returns to his home country are spontaneous eras for me. There is no doubt at all how important Bella was and the influence she had on his work. It doesn’t matter if goats fly, or there are horses in the sky or even if his symbolic signs are seemingly all over the place.


Wedding 1944

In My Country 1943

The Red horse 1938-1944

Soul of the city 1945

Bella et Ida at the window 1916

Around her 1945

Same period 1920....but not title for me

Man and a Rooster over VItebsk 1925

The dream 1927


Landscape - 1944


It’s when his work seems to become organized as if finally each animal, symbol has a «position» in his painting. Spontaneity has given away to organization. Each character has a specific place in a painting. Perhaps that’s why I can’t quite come to terms with the latter years. All the energy is there but despite this I find  there is a rigidity in his work.   

Sketch for red roofs 1953


The Blue Landscape 1949

Daphne et Chloé - 1956
The King David 1951
 I do like Daphé and Chloé.....
Sirene et Poisson 1956-1960  - Mermaid and Fish
The Monster of Notre Dame 1968?



Sketch for life 1964

Sketch for life 1964

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