MARC CHAGALL

* Not to boast, but  as a matter of identity, even in my teens I considered myself an artist. To my teachers and friends it seemed obvious, because if it was about art, they came to ask me. My personal experience is that art critics and media (some unintentionally) include their own opinions about the artist. There are actually only few bohemians among them. Most artists are very serious about their work, intense, philosophical about life, and somewhat removed from main stream. In the USA he is known for the paintings with  a cow jumping over the moon, the artist’s wife Bella floating, etc. .
Last year I saw a whole other side of the painter Marc Chagall.       1960-66 Moses visited by three angels, hearing that Sarah his wife would bear a child, when she  was at least 90 years old.       Chagall was a Russian Jew, and this inheritance had a huge influence on his paintings. I “kind of knew” that, but it was in the museum in Nice (pronounce niece) in France that it became so clear to me that although he knew Picasso, Braque and others of the Cubists movement, Chagall followed his own journey.

    Here, Jacobs battle with the angel on the left. On the right some major events  (Jospeh thrown by his brothers into a well, etc.)     Chagall’s patron  provided funds so he could go to France and he eventually became a French citizen. During world war II he fled to America. Marc met his wife Bella early on in life. He came from a poor family and she of a wealthy one. She had studied in Moscow and travelled abroad. She posed for him in several paintings. They stayed true to each other until she died (nothing Bohemian about this artist:) in contrast to Picasso ). *         On the back side of the main space of the gallery, is what I have dubbed as the Pink Room. All the paintings are a bright pink, leaning to red, and about the Song of Solomon  – a love story.  These have stolen my heart. Lovely, lovely, lovely. I don’t know if I could have swallowed  taken these paintings a decade ago.  The manner in which he portrays Biblical things are romantic,  magical, and childlike. Now, I’m a decade wiser (lol), I applaud his courage for a view that no doubt he believed in himself.        

Creation of each of the six days.

    On the premises of the museum is also a chapel erected to display his excellent stained glass work. It’s the most intense ultramarine blue I’ve seen. I was shocked how much my own work resembles the colors he uses. Last year (2013) I saw these for the first time in my life, while my own approach to the painting of this subject are since 1997.           To show some of my work in several art media I prepared a photo book for my three art shows in Holland last year May-June 2013), titled “Between Heaven and Earth.” After we got home, I gasped when I read the following in Chagall’s speech for the inauguration of the museum in 1973 (2nd resource below),

… that I was born, one might say, between heaven and earth; that the world for me is a great desert in which my soul wanders like a flaming torch – I have made paintings in unison with this distant dream. I wanted to leave them in this House so that men can try to find some peace … a meaning in life.

Serendipitous? Or what …   * Some of the great things about the museum: children can visit (there were some classes sitting on the front lawn when we arrived). You may take pics of the paintings!! (In many museums in Europe you are not allowed to do that). Friendly staff – I overheard one couple asking for the way to the beach, and the staff person gave them several options to get there:)   —————————————————— Some additional pics for the weekly memes      

If I would ascribe a flower to Chagall it would be definitely a rose, since he was known to love his wife Bella,

and painted her several times.

     

And this sky represents Chagall for the mesmerizing deep blue and the angel-like clouds floating above the horizon.

 

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    ** Resources *Harris, N., The Life and Works of Chagall, N.Y., Shooting Star Press, 1994 *Chagall, Musee National Marc Chagall, Nice, p. 9