.Chagall
Marc Chagall, 1935.
It was in October 1947 that Aimé Maeght met Marc Chagall for the first time, at the opening of his retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in the city of Paris, which Jean Cassou had organized as if to encourage and celebrate the painter's return after the years of exile in the United States."Ida Chagall took me to her father's house and it was dazzling in the studio when I discovered the gouaches painted in the United States and Mexico, sixty superb sheets that I was lucky enough to be able to bring back to the gallery. We We decided together on the project for the first exhibition at the Gallery. This meeting marks the beginning of our close and trusting collaboration and a friendship that has never wavered." Aimé Maeght
Marc Chagall then exhibited at the Galerie Maeght and became a friend and neighbor of Aimé Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
Marc Chagall, The Birthday, 1915.
Excerpt from The Maeght Saga:
"Marc Chagall is the closest neighbor to our property and Mamy wants us to go say hello to the mischievous artist every day. Alone or with my sisters, on foot, by bike or on horseback – with Flo, we travel through the surrounding hills perched on another neighbor's horses, I always stop on the way at his and his wife, Valentine Brodsky, who they call Vava. She is much younger than him, only ten years older. that Ida, the daughter of Chagall and Bella, but she is in charge of everything. Chagall is crazy about her as he once was about Bella, who likes to imitate Chagall with his sublime Russian accent. All the artist's cunning is perceptible in one of the films that Pierre Dumayet dedicated to my grandparents where he asks him why he only signs his paintings when they leave his studio "Because I think that he never finishes it. table, I'm not happy, I'm a guy who's not happy, except with my wife I'm happy. "
Marc Chagall in his studio painting his wife Bella, 1934.
Aimé Maeght and Marc Chagall in 1962.
Chagall acquired such a mastery of color that when Matisse died in 1954, Pablo Picasso expressed the idea that Chagall was now the only painter to understand what color really was. For Chagall, “All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites”.
Original poster printed in lithograph by Mourlot in 1954 for an exhibition at my grandfather's house.
Speech given by Marc Chagall upon receiving the Legion of Honor. Speaking of the Foundation: "Such a creation supposes a height and precision in views, a tenacity, a generosity also which we can offer as an example" Coming from Chagall, damn, what a compliment!
The joy of creating, without competition, in friendship, almost "as neighbors", Chagall living in the hills of Vence and Picasso, in Mougins.
Chagall's smile is overwhelming, the freshness and joy childish.
Moment of complicity between two geniuses! Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.
Chagall and the work
More than a hundred years for this painting. I am only beginning to appreciate the immense quality of Chagall's work, I would even say that, now, I am seduced, both aesthetically and in the analysis in the history of art.
Marc Chagall, Self-Portrait in Green, 1914.
When Chagall painted this magnificent work, in 1917-1918, he was in Paris in the middle of the First World War and during the Russian Revolution: it was at this time that he met Malevitch, Apollinaire, Picasso and Matisse and discovered Cubism and fauvism.
His days are not very happy, only love for Bella seems to extricate him from the darkness, but as the bond seems fragile, if he lets go of her hand, she will fly away without him.
And why isn't her other hand in the painting, is she holding another one?
Marc Chagall, The Walk, 1918.
In “The Green Violinist” from 1923, Chagall evokes his native country and religion. Chagall believed that it was possible to achieve communion with God through music and dance. The violinist being essential in Jewish ceremonies and festivals, as a child, he played it quite well, according to what he said.
The painting is both anchored in tradition, with the klezmer violinist embodying Chagall's Russian Jewish roots, and in modernity, with a cubist vocabulary with this angularly shaped coat.
Why did Chagall choose green for the violinist's face?
This is one of Chagall's paintings that made me, belatedly, love and even adore his work.
You have to imagine yourself facing this 2m high canvas. I was overwhelmed by the color, then by the details, then again by the hues, then the elements and geometric shapes which seem stacked, then all the references jostle together, historical, religious or artistic.
So, I no longer struggle, I accept to receive this painting as a gift, I enter, here I am in the small village of Vitebsk, I meet the actors of the history of art, oh, now , I am in Saint-Paul, in my childhood, I hear the voice of Chagall, that of my grandmother...
I stay in this happiness of painting for a long time, the most difficult thing is to come out and return to reality.
Marc Chagall, The Green Violinist, 1923.
Marc Chagall, The Rabbit, 1927. We are truly in Alice's garden, in the bowels of the earth. Lewis Carroll is not far away.
This painting was painted in 1938, the year of the tragic Kristallnacht (November 9 to 10, 1938). The painting already foreshadowed the horror that the Jewish people would experience during the Second World War. The symbolism of this painting is very strong and there are numerous references to the Jewish religion. For example, let us cite the loincloth of Christ replaced by a “tallit”, a shawl used for Jewish prayer. Likewise, on the right of the painting, a German synagogue is on fire. On the left, we glimpse the persecution suffered by Jews during the Russian Civil War (1917-1923).
Marc Chagall, Joseph, shepherd, preparatory gouache for The Bible, 1931.
Marc Chagall, White Crucifixion, 1938.
Chagall, a Russian immigrant to France, demonstrated his love for his new homeland and particularly for Paris, representing Notre Dame regularly with touching admiration. Without forgetting his Jewish history, he wanted to deliver a message of peace, love and harmony between people, whatever their religion: "Because as all life inevitably comes to an end, we must during ours, color it with our colors of love and hope."
Marc Chagall, Sunday, 1954.
As he knows how to use paper to make striking blanks, we must recognize that Chagall was an outstanding technician. His paintings are incredibly resistant to time, very few cracks, therefore few restorations to be expected.
The flowers of Chagall, the bridges of Paris and the Eiffel Tower my dream life.
Marc Chagall, in his studio, working on what will remain his greatest painting, Life, which he completed for the opening of the Maeght Foundation in 1964.
Marc Chagall, The Concert, 1958.
Marc Chagall, Bouquet, 1963.
Marc Chagall, Couple in Mimosa, 1967.
Marc Chagall seems satisfied with his ceramic work.
Close and ongoing relationships between Chagall, dance and theater.
It was in 1956 that the wonderful Greek publisher and collector Tériade asked Chagall to illustrate the fable of Daphnis and Chloe. It will take the painter five years to design the suite of 42 original color lithographs.
The suite of lithos is considered to be Chagall's most important graphic work. In fanciful compositions and vivid colors, the artist illustrates the pastoral idylls of the goatherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloe on the island of Lesbos, as told in a romantic Greek fable dating from the 2nd century.
A copy "with suite" is kept at the Maeght Foundation, from the collection of rare books of my grandfather, Aimé Maeght.
The “Discovery of Daphnis” litho by Lamon from the book Daphnis & Chloé illustrated by Chagall.
Marc Chagall, Le Baiser de Chloé, litho from Daphnis et Chloé, a masterpiece of contemporary bibliophily published by Tériade in 1961.
Chagall designed the sets for a Hermitage theater in Saint Petersburg and for the Jewish Theater in Moscow. In New York, he worked with the choreographers Leonide Massine and George Balanchine. And, of course, he painted the ceiling of the Opéra Garnier in Paris.
Marc Chagall, Dancer on a mauve background, 1970.
The bird wounded by an arrow.
Mortally struck by a feathered arrow,
A Bird lamented his sad destiny,
And said, while suffering additional pain:
“Must we contribute to our own misfortune!
Cruel humans! you pull from our wings
Enough to make these deadly machines fly.
But do not mock, you pitiless spawn:
Often a fate like ours happens to you.
Of the children of Iapetus always a half
Will provide weapons to the other."
Jean de La Fontaine.
Marc Chagall, illustration The bird wounded by an arrow.
"He is sleeping
He is awake
Suddenly he paints
He takes a church and paints with the church
He takes a cow and paints with a cow
With a sardine
With heads, hands, knives..."
Blaise Cendrars, 19 elastic poems, Portrait of Chagall 1919.
Marc Chagall in his studio.
Marc Chagall Stage curtain project for the 1942 ballet Aleko.
Marc Chagall, The Fables of La Fontaine - The Cat and the Two Sparrows
Marc Chagall, in January 1959 photographed by Richard Avedon.
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