Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading…
Transcript

Marc Chagall

Resurrection, 1947-48

Oil on Canvas, 168.3x107.7cm

  • Suffering Jew/Crucified Christ remains the focal point, now divides the canvas in from left and right.
  • On the left, there is the Red Army of Revolution, a man holding a torch of hope, a couple perhaps in hope and an older couple holding another swinging light that intrudes into the first plane next to the crucifix as a symbol of hope.
  • The prophet Jeremiah or perhaps Isaiah can be seen on the bottom left speaking a warning of persecution.
  • The painter can be seen again upside down alongside the crucifix, the goat is seated holding a bowl in the background.
  • The colors are cold and represent winter against the blood red sky in the background of revolution. However, the wintery landscape has taken over the painting communicating a dreary state.
  • The village is again silent with a small fire still emanating from a home while a couple clutches each other.

Resistance,1947-48

Oil on Canvas, 168x103cm

Color palette contrasts with the pale blue and the blood red. The pale blue is cold and sorrowful. The blood red holds on to ideas of revolution and hope.

Brushwork is softer in the foreground having a dry unfinished look reinforcing a cold winter cover over the village.

{1}Pacoud-Reme, Elisabeth and Maurice Frechuret. Chagall: Msee National Marc Chagall, Nice. S.1:S.n.,2011

{2} Yiddish symbols, http://yiddishbookcenter.org. Accessed 11/20-12/19/2016

  • Focal point is the Christ/suffering Jew. Symbol of the goat in Chagall's Yiddish culture was of hope and for the Christian of sacrifice. The bride and painter is seen below the crucifix. Crowd of Jewish people scattering on the right, in the middle a crowd in the midst of revolution and the left persecution.
  • The color is reminiscent of Fauvism. The blood red is cast over dream-like visions of diaspora, persecution, and death in the sky. The village is somber and lacking life as it is cast in a deep blue. The symbol of the painter lay dead in the street below the crucifix in the same blood red of the sky. The golden yellow that showers the symbol of the crucifix also showers the people of the revolution turning from their fiddles to rifles as a message of hope.
  • The painting is divided into two planes, the foreground of the village where the crucifix is grounded and the background of the blood red sky. Through this dividing of the two planes the sky is more dream-like pointing to the past while the foreground seems more present and grounded in current events.
  • Color palette is emotionally charged with desperation, hope, celebration, anguish, and pleasure.
  • Brushwork is rough emphasizing violence and opaque outlines with a dream-like/memory quality. The soft dream-like quality is also in opposition at times with the harshness of the content of persecution, revolution, and sorrow.
  • The deep blue/purple of the village is overwhelming and harsh.
  • The contrast of color used by Chagall represents very clear consequences of war; physically and emotionally.

Liberation, 1947-1952

Oil on Canvas, 16x88cm

Introduction

{1}Pacoud-Reme, Elisabeth and Maurice Frechuret. Chagall: Msee National Marc Chagall, Nice. S.1:S.n.,2011

{2} Yiddish symbols, http://yiddishbookcenter.org. Accessed 11/20-12/19/2016

  • Emphasis is on celebration and hope. The color is golden yellow, bright and vibrant.
  • Memory of the good life of his hometown and culture. The circle becomes part of the focal point. Perhaps a symbol of life.
  • Bride Groom take center stage floating under a canopy with a feast and flowers beside them.
  • The menorah is thrust into the picture which is lit for feast days and rituals
  • The fiddler is also at the center
  • The painter is at his canvas next to the fiddler dressed in purple the same as the groom below. The goat can be seen next to the Groom only outlined like a distant memory of home.
  • The crucified Jew/Christ ca be seen in white in the distance next to Moses and the Commandments on the left.
  • The Red Army of Revolution is fading into the distance.
  • Chagall's imagery conjures discussions of Jewish Culture and diaspora, Biblical narratives, Folklore, Poetry, Kitsch, Love and death, and Revolution.
  • He blended styles of Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism and even Surrealism
  • What are the images doing? Through mastery of color and symbol, these images draw the viewer into a narrative of war, religious persecution, death and suffering, even hope. Chagall pulls on the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual strings of the viewer in the environment of a Conservative America in the midst of War; Religious and Political propaganda through traditional method of painting.
  • Why value and give attention to them? This triptych serves as political and religious commentary to the Jewish people, about his people, and to the West who were fighting for the future of Europe and the Jews. These images also serve as documentary evidence of Jewish Art and culture in the midst of diaspora and genocide.

Color palette is emotionally charged with hope, celebration, and pleasure.

The brushwork is typical of the other two paintings in the triptych.

{1}Pacoud-Reme, Elisabeth and Maurice Frechuret. Chagall: Msee National Marc Chagall, Nice. S.1:S.n.,2011

{2} Yiddish symbols, http://yiddishbookcenter.org. Accessed 11/20-12/19/2016

Thesis

The symbols and representations Chagall utilized in his work developed in a time of war intersecting with his own Jewish culture,beliefs, and life experiences. He claimed his work could not hold theories or using methodologies for interpretation. The Triptych however, communicates a foreboding message using symbols of culture, religion, and political or revolutionary events. Through the tradition of painting, these images confront the consequences of war akin to contemporary media bringing awareness of the atrocities of such an event. Thus, Chagall created recognizable religious, cultural, and political narratives in what seems as a warning to his audience.{1}

Bibliography

Resistance, Resurrection, and Liberation, 1947-1952

Musee National d'Art Modene-on permanent loan at the Musee National Marc Chagall since 1990

Visual Recap

  • His work is embedded with personal symbols from his childhood as well as traditions of religion and culture. The process of psychoanalysis gives a deeper understanding of why Chagall utilized symbols of War, Culture, and Religion to open the conversation for Warning,Peace or the good life in the 'shtetl' to which he longed.
  • The representation of belief, religion, and love can be seen through his use of the symbol of the suffering Jew/Christ as well as the prophet bringing a divine message. The Cross is tied to a long history of representations however, Chagall has used it in combination with the Jewish Prophet which brings the people of God a message by God. The cross typically symbolizes suffering for Jewish people and for the Christian sacrifice, love, and the hope of resurrection.
  • The chaos of the images intertwining with particular symbols reinforces the violence of war, the degree to which the world was changing, and how the individual must have felt during this turmoil.
  • His paintings have become in a sense documentary evidence of a scattered culture.
  • Whether through a psychoanalytic process of interpretation or finding meaning through Iconography, it is evident that Chagall intertwined his personal belief and politics to express his lament over what happened to the people of his hometown and at the time those who were left in Europe during a period of Holocaust; ultimately bringing awareness and warning to his audience.

Resistance Resurrection Liberation

by Letitia Capra

{1} Harshav, Benjamin, and Marc Chagall. Marc Chagall and His Times: A Documentary Narrative. Stanford, CA:Stanford University Press, 2004.

  • In 1937 Chagall painted Revolution with Lenin as the center, 10 year anniversary of the event. He represented the key figure for the Jewish people beginning with resistance which would in turn lead to their resurrection and liberation. This painting would later be cut into three pieces. An interesting note about the original Lenin is that Chagall believed he would turn Russia upside down and that warning came true.
  • Once reworked into three pieces, these paintings became a response to WWII, specifically a representation of the recurring events of the persecution of the Jews. The Audience included not only his own people, but also America. This work certainly characterizes the mood of war, the lament of suffering, and the nostalgia for peace.
  • The result of a mass immigration by European artists because of the war, contributed to a new movement of Abstract Expressionism with its focus on the private styles of artists based on dreams, mythology, and even the subconscious. Chagall, fit in to the new movement with his unique blend of Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, and even elements of the surreal.
  • Though he supported the Russian Revolution of 1917, his support and nostalgia for the good life of his hometown remained at the center of his concern with onslaught of WWII, specifically the Genocide committed against the Jewish people throughout Europe.
  • Finally, Benjamin Horshav documents from interviews and the writings, Chagalls belief concerning theory and interpretations in which his work could not contain.

{Greenberg, Clement. Art and Culture: Critical Essays. Boston: Beacon Press, 1961.pp91-95

{1}Harshav, Benjamin, and Marc Chagall. Marc Chagall and His Times: A Documentary Narrative. Stanford, CA:Stanford University Press, 2004.

{2}Pacoud-Reme, Elisabeth and Maurice Frechuret. Chagall: Msee National Marc Chagall, Nice. S.1:S.n.,2011

Outline of Presentation

Concluding thoughts

  • Background information of Marc Chagall
  • Introduction to the Triptych
  • Analysis of each painting
  • Visual Recap
  • Concluding thoughts
  • Bibliography

{1}Harshav, Benjamin, and Marc Chagall. Marc Chagall and His Times: A Documentary Narrative. Stanford, CA:Stanford University Press, 2004.

{2}Pacoud-Reme, Elisabeth and Maurice Frechuret. Chagall: Msee National Marc Chagall, Nice. S.1:S.n.,2011

Artist Background

  • I chose to discuss Marc Chagall for a few reasons. The first is his unique visual expression during a critical time in history concerning events of war and religious persecution which he personal experienced. The second, was his insistence in creating images of personal, religious, and cultural themes or narratives regardless of outside theory and interpretation.
  • The visual culture in which these paintings were created, he utilized imagery in a dream-like state, of religious symbols, and figures to build upon a narrative of historical and modern events in order to communicate not only a personal lament but also a warning.
  • I am intrigued by how Marc Chagall intertwined the events of the time using familiar imagery and symbols of his culture/religion in a manner that does not confront the viewer with a hesitancy to look at the images of war but one that eases into the reality of such events.
  • Robert Orsi, discusses how religion is a web of relationships between mankind and the heavens. Chagall certainly expresses this relationship of his Jewish culture and beliefs intertwining with the physical realm. Though he does not use realism to create an illusion in order to draw the viewer nearer to God through what is represented, he makes the connection of believing (suggested by Horshav as well) in God rather than looking to a political revolution for liberation.
  • His audience included the Jewish people, the West, other artists, and gallery/museum visitors.
  • Today Chagall's work has been reproduced on cards, in books, magazines, and other various products of consumption.
  • This Triptych along with other of his work reside in the Marc Chagall Museum in Nice, France. They continue to be placed on display around the wold for special exhibitions about Jewish Art and Culture as well as other War and Religious themes.

Born 1887, in Vitebsk region of the former Russian Empire to a Jewish family who followed the Hasidic tradition.

{1} Morgan,David. "The Look of the Sacred." In The Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies. ed. Robert A.Orsi. Cambridge University Press, 2012, p296-318

{2}Pacoud-Reme, Elisabeth and Maurice Frechuret. Chagall: Msee National Marc Chagall, Nice. S.1:S.n.,2011

{3} Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies: An introduction to researching with Visual Materials.

{4} Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford University Press, 2009 (2nd Edition).

  • Chagall's first introduction to the image was not at home since it was considered a path leading to idol worship thus, he would visit the studio of painter Yehuda Pen while he worked for a photographer retouching images.
  • From 1907 to 1911, he worked designing costumes and sets for the Ballet Russes which was a skill he would continue to use throughout his life even during multiple periods of Exile from his hometown.
  • His first travels to Paris turned incredibly influential and forever altered the way he would represent the world around him. Beginning from the Russian Avant-Garde of Neo-Primitivism and Popular artisanal traditions, Chagall embraced elements of Fauvism, Futurism, and Cubism during his time in Paris.
  • Upon his return to Russia, the beginning of WWI, he was unable to return to Paris. Thus, he focused on his art exhibiting and displaying representations of Jewish life in the shtetl through his unique blend of multiple movements.
  • He married Bella (Berta Rosenfeld) in Vitebsk in 1915 and his daughter Ida was born 1916. He took a position, due to his support of the October Revolution and the Red Army led by Vladimir Lenin, as the director of the peoples art academy and commissar of fine Arts in Vitebsk. The Revolution allowed for the Jewish people of the Russian Empire to aquire citizenship which opened their access as a people to be more mobile throughout the Empire. However, the Suprematists, led by Malevich quickly moved in and took over his position as the director the academy which inevitably forced Chagall to resign as Commissar as well.
  • Once Chagall and his family left Vitebsk, never to return, he continued his work from France. Throughout his travels in Eastern Europe however, he became aware of an anti-Semitic sentiment which led him to apply for French citizenship because of his involvement and support during the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Nazis declared Chagall, alongside many other artists, "degenerate Artists".
  • Subsequently he was able to acquire asylum in New York during the WWII where he revisited the painting Revolution, cutting it into this Triptych.

{1}Harshav, Benjamin, and Marc Chagall. Marc Chagall and His Times: A Documentary Narrative. Stanford, CA:Stanford University Press, 2004.

{2}Pacoud-Reme, Elisabeth and Maurice Frechuret. Chagall: Msee National Marc Chagall, Nice. S.1:S.n.,2011

Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi