The Lifestory of Marc Chagall - Essay Example

Marc Chagall Introduction Marc Chagall was born in Belorussian if Vitebsk in 1887. His birth was Mavsha Shagal. He was the eldest of nine children in the Jewish family, his father Khatskl Shagal was employed by the herring merchant and his mother Feige- Ite sold groceries from their home. Chagall received his primary education at the local Jewish religious school, from where he studied Hebrew and bible. Later on he went to the Russian high school. The idea of being a painter came when he first noticed a fellow student drawing; this was a turning point in his life. When he asked the schoolmate about how he learned to draw he replied, "Go and find a book in the library, idiot, choose any picture you like, and just copy it." Chagall soon began copying images from books and the experience was so rewarding that he decided to become an artist. (Baal-Teshuva, 1998).In 1906 his interest in arts drew him to the studio of Yehuda (Yuri) Pen, who was a realistic artist at that time and ran a small drawing school in Vitebsk. Due to Chagall’s young age and lack of income Pen taught him free of charge. But he was taught portrait painting there, which he later realized did not suit him. Thesis statement Chagall chose arts to cherish and publicly express Jewish roots through his work. He explained his self-assertion and expression of principles in his artwork. The essay will describe the great painter Marc Chagall’s life, who was he, what was his field of interest, how his paintings revealed his character and how his Jewish background impacted his career? Art career Marc Chagall moved to St. Petersburg; capital of Russia, in 1906. The place was the centre of country’s artistic life and had many famous art schools. There he was enrolled in a prestigious arts school and studied for 2 years. By 1907 he had painted naturalistic self portraits and landscapes. At St. Petersburg he discovered experimental theatres and the works of other artist including Paul Gauguin. Another Jewish, Leon Bakst, under whom Chagall studied, helped him by acting as a role model for Jewish success. He lived and studied there for 4 years, this was the place from where Chagall entered into the field of contemporary art. Chagall moved to Paris in 1910, to develop his own artistic style. His style was full of ripe colors, full of sentiments and had sense of humor. The concepts were new in Paris at that time, thus his work was given encouragement by many poets and artist. His initial days were hard in the big city where he was unable to communicate as he did not know French. At many times he thought of returning back to Russia. In Paris he enrolled at La Palette, an art academy. In his free time he visited galleries and salons to study works of great artist and painters including Picasso, Matisse, Chardin etc. He gradually learned the technique of gouache, which he later used in his Russian scene paintings. This was a new phase in Chagall art development. The kaleidoscope of colors and few work of French artist opened a new world for Chagall. Cubism movement Chagall was impressed by the cubism movement; an avant-garde art movement pioneered by Pablo Picasso and George Braque. The movement revolutionizes European paintings and sculptures, and inspired related movements in music and literature. The first branch of cubism was known as analytic cubism which was a short but highly significant movement in France. Cubism had three phases; early cubism (1906-1908), the initial phases of the movement, high cubism (1909-1914), during which the Spanish painter and sculpture that lived in France, Juan Gris emerged as an important model, and late cubism (1914-1921), the final phase of cubism. His work In Paris Chagall painted many art works, including Jewish motifs and subjects from his memories of Vitebsk, he included Parisian scenes, the Eiffel tower in particular in his portraits. Chagall developed a whole range of quirky motifs: the ghostly figure floating in the sky, the gigantic fiddler dancing on miniature dollhouses, the livestock and transparent wombs and, within them, tiny offspring sleeping upside down ( Michael J,2008). He also painted his dreams of life in Vitebsk while living in Paris. His paintings of animal/human hybrids and airborne phantoms later became a formative influence of Surrealism. Surrealism was a cultural movement known for its visual artworks and writings of group members. Its work features elements of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non-sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Surrealism led to the development of Dada activities during World War 1. Dadaism Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement which began in Zurich, Switzerland. It was peaked from 1916-1922. The movement involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre and graphic design. Its emphasis was on anti-war politics, and it was anti-bourgeois and anarchistic in nature. Its activities included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals; passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture were topics discussed in a variety of media. Later on the movement influenced styles like avent- garde and downtown music movements, and groups including surrealism, Noveau realisme, pop art, flexus and punk rock. Chagall never wanted his work to be associated with any school or movement but others associated his work with logic and fantastic paintings. A painter Marc Chagall accepted the invitation from the noted art dealer in Berlin to exhibit his work in Russia. He took 40 canvases and 160 gouaches, watercolors and drawings to the exhibition held at Herwarth Walden’s Sturm gallery where his work was a huge success. In love off his wife Bella he made paintings that showed young couple with floating balloons over Vitebsk, its wooden building faceted in the Delaunay manner. After the October revolution of 1917 Chagall took the position of commissioner of art for Vitebsk, it was then he founded the Vitebsk Arts College, the most distinguished school of art in Soviet Union. Few of the important artists of the country like El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich became parts of its faculty. His first teacher Yehuda Pen was also a part of the college. In 1915 Chagall exhibited his work in Moscow at the well-known salon and in 1916 in St.Petersburg. He also illustrated a number of Yiddish books with ink drawings. In Moscow as a stage designer he created large background murals using techniques he had learned from his early teacher Bakst. One of his murals was 9 feet tall by 24 feet long and included images of various lively subjects such as dancers, fiddlers, acrobats, and farm animals. This mural created a landmark in the history of the theatre. After returning back to France he created etchings for the series of illustrated books including Gogol’s Dead soul, the Bible and the Fables of La Fontaine. In 1942 Chagall designed the sets and costumes for his new ballet Aleko which staged the world of Pushkins verse narrative The Gypsies with the music of Rachmaninoff. The audience made his work a huge success and the famous mural painters like Diego Rivera and Jose Orozco appreciated hid work. In 1963 Chagall painted the new ceiling for the Paris Opera, a majestic 19th-century building and national monument. It took Chagall a year to complete. The final canvas was nearly 2,400 square feet (220 sq. meters) and required 440 pounds of paint. It had five sections which were glued to polyester panels and hoisted up to the 70-foot ceiling. The images Chagall painted on the canvas paid tribute to the composers Mozart, Wagner, Mussorgsky, Berlioz and Ravel and to famous actors and dancers. Art style and technique Chagall’s colors in his paintings always attracted and captured the viewer’s attention, using only 2-3 colors he conveyed striking messages through his paintings. Based on his personal vision he created vibrant atmosphere through colors. His early pictures were of the town where he was born; they were realistic and looked as if moments were captured in time. Later on in his life he blended real with fantasy, he did not attempted to present reality but always created an atmosphere through fantasy. He blended the techniques of Fauvism and cubism with his own folk’s style. Chagall also contributed his work in stained glass. He created a number of paintings on window of churches including St. Stephens Church in Mainz, Germany, All Saints Church Tudeley UK and the United Nations building. He painted murals, theatre sets, costumes, tapestries including three of them for the state hall of the Knesset in Israel, along with 12 floor mosaics and a wall mosaic; he also painted ceramics and sculptures. His expertise in the field of painting is remembered and appreciated up to this day. Work cited Baal-Teshuva, Jacob. Marc Chagall, Taschen, 1998-2008. Lewis, Michael J., Whatever Happened to Marc Chagall? Commentary, October, 2008 pgs. 36-37 Hugo Ball, Dada Manifesto, Dada soiree, Zurich 14th July 1916. Nadace, Czech cubism foundation, 2002 , http://www.nck.cz/cesky_kubismus.php?lg=eng Read More