Chagall: a fight for the Art

Marc Chagall's real name was Marc Zacharovic Sagalov (born in Vitebsk

1887-SaintPaul de Vence, Nice, 1985). Colorist bold and prestigious, narrator

suspended between the real and the fairy tale, in the paintings, his favourite themes (a

repertoire of images that combine human figures, animals, objects and landscapes)

were joined by reasons related to the biblical world.

He took an active part in the Russian Revolution of 1917, and during World War I he

was appointed People's Commissar for the Arts in Vitebsk, where he also founded an

art school; from 1919 instead he worked for the Jewish theatre in Moscow. Later he

moved to France but with the Nazi occupation in World War II, with the deportation of

the Jews and the Holocaust, Chagall's family was forced to leave Paris for the USA.

In his life he argued in several occasions with Kashmir Maceliz and his teacher

Yehuda Pen.

We were in Milan at Chagall's exhibition last Monday, 24 November2014.

It was beautiful and amazing, because it described the life of Chagall through his

works.

Our group was interested in the time of the First and the Second World War and the

Bolshevik Revolution. We observed in particular two paintings:

-The poet reclining

-The white crucifixion

This painting of serenity and calm captures' affectionate moments in the life of Chagall

and his first wife Bella.

March Chagall 1915, technique oil, exposed in Tate gallery (London, UK)

It is a reverie in which he imagines himself outstretched in the Russian countryside

where they spent their honeymoon. He remembers it as a place of 'wood, fir-trees,

solitude. The pig in the sty, the horse behind the window, in the fields. The sky lilac.'

Though an idyllic scene, the figure seems oddly isolated. This may relate to the fact

that Chagall painted it during the First World War. This painting represents the Israeli

people searching for a free land, but never achieved.

This work was painted after Chagall had visited Europe and it represents the

crucifixion, often seen by the Jewish people as a symbol of oppression, used to

represent his affliction.

Marc Chagall 1938, technique oil, exposed in Chicago-Art Institute

The painting emphasizes the suffering of Jesus of Nazareth King of Jews . At the sides

violent acts against the Jews take place. In the center Jesus is shown crucified wearing

a prayer shawl as a symbol of his belonging to the Jewish people.

Many of Chagall’s paintings could be described as lively, romantic, humorous,

imaginative, and filled with brilliant colours (as a hymn to life and childhood), but the

White Crucifixion is largely drained of colour. Chagall painted it in 1938 while living in

Paris, in response to the horrifying events of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken

Glass,” an anti-Jewish pogrom of official decree by propaganda Minister Joseph

Goebbels in Nazi Germany (including Austria and Sudetenland) from the 9th until the

10th of November 1938.

Two changes were made by Chagall to the work, a swastika on the armband of the

soldier burning the synagogue was overpainted as well as the words "Ich bin Jude" on

a placard around the neck of a man.

We can also see that a green figure carrying a bundle is shown crossing the

foreground. This figure is identified as pillage or as omen of Russian persecution.

Instead lower left there is a rabbi dressed in black that rescues the scrolls of Torah.

In fact this painting also represents the final stage of the Bolshevik revolution where

the Bolshevik Party led by Lenin and Leon Trotsky, decides the insurgency against

Alexander Kerensky's weak provisional government to take control in the name of the

Soviet workers and peasants.

Between the two paintings we preferred the White Crucifixion because it really

represents scenery but at the same time it describes more aspects of the work itself, in

fact it is so full of details that the absence of colour is almost not noticed.

Pope Francis, a well-established ally and friend of the Jewish people, considers the

painting to be his favourite too. Infact Chagall's paintings are connected to the Jewish

tradition of Chad Gadya (illustrated by El Lissitzki).

Davide Dell'Orletta, Lorenzo Angeloni, Matteo Ghersi, Diego Schiavone, Nicola

Cravino and Cristian Ruggeri.

Supervisione della Prof. Carla Testi e del Prof. Antonio Lanteri