Marc Chagall 1887 —1985
Biography
MARC CHAGALL
Art is the increasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding.
Color is all. When color is right, form is right. Color is everything, color is vibration like music; everything is vibration.
- Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall (Yiddish: מאַרק שאַגאַל; Belarusian: Мойша Захаравіч Шагалаў Mojša Zaharavič Šagałaŭ; Russian: Марк Захарович Шага́л Mark Zakharovich Shagal) (7 July 1887 - 28 March 1985) was a Russian-Belarusian-French painter of Jewish origin, who was born in Belarus, at that time part of the Russian Empire. He is associated with the modern movements after Impressionism.
Marc Chagall was born July 7, 1887, in Vitebsk, Russia. From 1907 to 1910, he studied in Saint Petersburg, at the Imperial Society for the Protection of the Arts and later with Léon Bakst. In 1910, he moved to Paris for four years, where he associated with Guillaume Apollinaire and Robert Delaunay and encountered Fauvism more and Cubism more. It was during this period that he painted some of his most famous paintings of the Jewish village, and developed the features that became recognizable trademarks of his art. Strong and bright colors began to portray the world in a dreamlike state. Fantasy, nostalgia, and religion began to fuse together to create otherworldly images.
He participated in the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne in 1912. His first solo show was held in 1914 at Der Sturm gallery in Berlin.
Chagall visited Russia in 1914, and was prevented from returning to Paris by the outbreak of war. He settled in Vitebsk, where he was appointed Commissar for Art in 1918. He founded the Vitebsk Popular Art School and directed it until disagreements with the Suprematists resulted in his resignation in 1920. He moved to Moscow and executed his first stage designs for the State Jewish Chamber Theater there. After a sojourn in Berlin, Chagall returned to Paris in 1923 and met Ambroise Vollard. His first retrospective took place in 1924 at the Galerie Barbazanges-Hodebert, Paris.
During the 1930s, he traveled to Palestine, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, and Italy. In 1933, the Kunsthalle Basel held a major retrospective of his work.
During World War II, Chagall fled to the United States. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, gave him a retrospective in 1946. He settled permanently in France in 1948 and exhibited in Paris, Amsterdam, and London. During 1951, he visited Israel and executed his first sculptures. The following year, the artist traveled in Greece and Italy. During the 1960s, Chagall continued to travel widely, often in association with large-scale commissions he received. Among these were windows for the synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, installed in 1962; a ceiling for the Paris Opéra, installed in 1964; a window for the United Nations building, New York, installed in 1964; murals for the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, installed in 1967; and windows for the cathedral in Metz, France, installed in 1968. An exhibition of the artist's work from 1967 to 1977 was held at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, in 1977-78 (a very rare occurance for a living artist), and a major retrospective was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1985. Chagall died March 28, 1985, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.
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View synoptic biography below.
Synoptic Biography
1887 Born: July 7, Vitebsk, Russia
1907 - 1910 Studied at the Imperial Society for the Protection of the Arts; Saint Petersburg
1918 Appointed Commissar for Art, founded the Vitebsk Popular Art School
1927 Recognized as a leading painter of the School of Paris and founding member of the Association des Peintres-Graveurs
1939 Awarded first prize by the Carnegie Foundation, Pittsburgh
1948 Awarded the Grand Prix de Gravure at the Venice Biennale
1959 Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
1965 Awarded an Honorary Degree by Notre-Dame University, Indiana
1977 Awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion d'Honneur
1985 Died: March 28, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
Selected Exhibitions
2008 Marc Chagall, MAN - Museo d'Arte di Nuoro, Nuoro
2007 Marc Chagall: The Bible Series, Louisiana Art & Science Museum, Baton Rouge, LA
2006 Marc Chagall, Tale Art Museum, Lillestrom
1985 Marc Chagall: Retrospectives; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Royal Academy, London
1983 Oeuvres sur papier exhibition: National Museum of Modern Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1982 Marc Chagall: Retrospectives; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Louisianer Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
1977 - 1978 Marc Chagall: The artist's work from 1967 to 1977; Musée du Louvre, Paris
1974 Marc Chagall: Retrospective of engraved works (prints); National Gallery, East Berlin and Dresden
1970 Hommage a Marc Chagall; Musee du Grand-Palais, Paris
1967 Marc Chagall: Retrospectives; Zurich, Cologne and the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence
1963 Marc Chagall: Retrospective; National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
1959 Marc Chagall: Retrospective; Museum of Decorative Arts, Palais du Louvre, Paris
1951 Marc Chagall: Retrospective; Jerusalem
1947 Marc Chagall: Retrospective; Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris
1946 Marc Chagall: Retrospective; Museum of Modern Art, New York
1942 Artists in Exile; New York
1938 Marc Chagall: Retrospective; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
1933 Marc Chagall: Retrospective; Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
1926 Marc Chagall: Solo Exhibition; Reinhardt Gallery, New York
1924 Marc Chagall: Retrospective; Galerie Barbazanges-Hodebert, Paris
1913 Marc Chagall: Solo Exhibition; Der Sturm Gallery, Berlin
1912 Participated in the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne; Paris, France
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