Marc Chagall - illustrations to the Bible and other lithographs
A visit to the extraordinary world of Chagall’s paintings was made possible by an exhibition of color lithographs on display at the Stalowa Wola museum.
Marc Chagall (Italian: Moshe Seigal) belongs to the inner circle of the most outstanding artists of the 20th century. He was born in 1887 to a Hasidic family in the territory of Czarist Russia. He spent his youth in Vitebsk.
In the Soviet Union he served as a cultural commissar, and also designed theatrical sets. From 1922 he was in exile in Berlin, Paris, during the war in the USA and Mexico, then again in France. He began painting with naively realistic paintings, moving through the cubist period towards symbolism and surrealism. As a result, he created his own unique style – unreal and fantastic, oscillating on the borderline between java and dream, poetic and understated, filled with adoration for the joy of life and love. He sought his painting subjects in the folklore of his childhood country, Jewish rituals, the Bible and the people around him. He created oil paintings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, stained glass, mosaics, while one of Chagall’s favorite techniques was lithography.
The exhibition features dozens of the more than a thousand lithographs created by the artist. The first part covers biblical scenes. The Bible has been an inspiration for very many artists in the history of the world, and its themes accompany the life of modern man at every step, regardless of religious views. But is this tantamount to knowing the message of this remarkable work?
According to Chagall, in such a case the horrors of war would be impossible. So he set himself the goal of creating the Bible in images that would enable the viewer to receive it more easily and, as it were, to rediscover it, so that among the parables and descriptions of fascinating dramas and miracles he could find life’s truths. Chagall’s Bible is his own and unique vision: “I didn’t read the Bible, I dreamed it”- he said.
The second part features 24 works from the exclusive “Lithographs I-VI” edition, while the third part includes a selection of prints on a variety of subjects. They feature the artist’s favorite motifs. He was eager to immortalize colorful circus scenes with acrobats suspended in sky-high evolutions, clowns with faces saturated with feelings, full of a kind of mysticism and mystery.
The set could not lack unique and charming couples in love, whirling in dance, entwined in an embrace, floating in space beyond the boundary of time
and reality, uttering the author’s motto that “in life as in art everything is possible if it is based on love.”
In all the artist’s works, color plays an extremely important role, expressively depicting a world of shaky proportions and forms, filled with winged figures and objects, animals and flowers often in overly contrasting combinations.
The last lithograph was made by Marc Chagall…. on the day of his death and, according to its title, passed away “towards another light” on March 28, 1985.
The lithographs in the set presented at the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola appeared in southeastern Poland for the first time, creating an opportunity that Chagall’s admirers could not miss.
The exhibition was organized by Lep Art Consulting
