Mark walked on the Crimean rampart. The Tretyakov Gallery invites you to admire the paintings of Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall. Above the city. 1918, Moscow

The paintings of Marc Chagall (1887-1985) are surreal and unique. His early work Above the City is no exception.

The main characters, Marc Chagall himself and his beloved Bella, are flying over their native Vitebsk (Belarus).

Chagall portrayed the most pleasant feeling in the world. Feeling of mutual love. When you can't feel the ground under your feet. When you become one with your loved one. When you don't notice anything around. When you just fly from happiness.

The background of the painting

When Chagall began painting Over the City in 1914, they had known Bella for 5 years. But 4 of which they spent apart.

He is the son of a poor Jewish handyman. She is the daughter of a wealthy jeweler. At the time of meeting, a completely unsuitable candidate for an enviable bride.

He went to Paris to study and make a name for himself. Came back and got it. They married in 1915.

This happiness was written by Chagall. Happy to be with the love of your life. Despite the difference in social status. Despite the protests of the family.

The main characters of the picture

With the flight, everything is more or less clear. But you may wonder why the lovers do not look at each other.

Perhaps because Chagall depicted the souls of happy people, not their bodies. Indeed, bodies cannot fly. But souls can.

Marc Chagall. Above the city (detail). 1918 Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

And the souls do not have to look at each other. They need to feel connected. Here we see him. Each soul has one hand, as if they really have almost merged into a single whole.

He, as a carrier of a stronger masculine principle, is written more roughly. in a cubic manner. Bella, on the other hand, is graceful in a feminine way and is woven from rounded and smooth lines.

And the heroine is dressed in soft blue. But it does not merge with the sky, because it is gray.

The couple stands out well against the background of such a sky. And it seems as if it is very natural to fly above the ground.

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The image of the city

It seems that we see all the signs of a town, or rather a large village, which Vitebsk was 100 years ago. There are churches and houses here. And even more pompous building with columns. And, of course, a lot of fences.

Marc Chagall. Above the city (detail). 1918 Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

But still, the city is not like that. The houses are deliberately slanted, as if the artist does not own perspective and geometry. Such a childish approach.

This makes the town more fabulous, toy. It enhances our feeling of love.

Indeed, in this state, the world around is significantly distorted. Everything becomes happier. And much is not noticed at all. The lovers don't even notice the green goat.

Why is the goat green

Marc Chagall loved green. Which is not surprising. Still, it is the color of life, youth. And the artist was a person with a positive outlook. What is his phrase “Life is an obvious miracle” worth.

He was a Hasidic Jew by origin. And this is a special worldview that is instilled from birth. It is based on the cultivation of joy. Hasidim should even pray joyfully.

Therefore, it is not surprising that he portrayed himself in a green shirt. And the goat in the background is green.

Marc Chagall. A fragment with a green goat in the painting "Above the City".

In other pictures, he even has green faces. So the green goat is not the limit.

Marc Chagall. Green violinist (fragment). 1923-1924 Guggenheim Museum, New York

But this does not mean that if a goat, then it is certainly green. Chagall has a self-portrait, where he paints the same landscape as in the painting “Above the City”.

And there is a red goat. The picture was created in 1917, and the color red - the color of the revolution that has just erupted - penetrates the artist's palette.

Marc Chagall. Self portrait with palette. 1917 Private collection

Why are there so many fences

Fences are surreal. They don't frame the yards the way they should. And they stretch in an endless string, like rivers or roads.

In Vitebsk, in fact, there were many fences. But they, of course, just surrounded the houses. But Chagall decided to arrange them in a row, thereby highlighting them. Making them almost a symbol of the city.

It is impossible not to mention this quick-faced man under the fence.

Like looking at the picture first. And cover feelings of romance, airiness. Even the green goat does not spoil the pleasant impression.

And suddenly the eye stumbles upon a man in an indecent pose. The sense of idyll begins to fade.

Marc Chagall. Detail of the painting "Above the city".

Why does the artist deliberately add a spoonful of ... fly in the ointment to a barrel of honey?

Because Chagall is not a storyteller. Yes, the world of lovers is distorted, it becomes like a fairy tale. But it's still life, with its mundane and mundane moments.

And in this life there is a place for humor. It's bad to take everything too seriously.

Why Chagall is so unique

To understand Chagall, it is important to understand him as a person. And his character was special. He was an easy-going, easy-going, talkative person.

He loved life. I believed in true love. Knew how to be happy.

And he really did manage to be happy.

Lucky, many will say. I don't think it's about luck. And in a special attitude. He was open to the world and trusted the world. Therefore, willy-nilly, he attracted the right people, the right customers.

Hence - a happy marriage with his first wife Bella. Successful emigration and recognition in Paris. Long, very long life (the artist lived for almost 100 years).

Of course, one can recall a very unpleasant story with Malevich, who literally "took away" his school from Chagall in 1920. Having enticed all his students with very bright speeches about Suprematism *.

Including because of this, the artist and his family left for Europe.

Posta-Magazine collected

the most interesting facts about the artist and his work.

Over the past quarter century, panels painted for the Jewish Theater have traveled the world, from the Pacific coast of the United States to Japan, visiting 46 cities. But in Moscow they were exhibited only twice: they were shown after restoration in 1991 and at the retrospective exhibition of Marc Chagall in 2005. And now, for the first time in these years, the city has the opportunity to include them in the permanent exhibition of the Tretyakov Gallery.

Marc Chagall received an order to decorate the theater in 1920, after GOSET moved from Petrograd to Moscow. The chronicle says that the artist then responded to the order with great enthusiasm. “Here is an opportunity to turn over the old Jewish theater with its psychological naturalism and fake beards. Finally, I will be able to turn around, and here, on the walls, express what I consider necessary for the revival of the national theater,” he said.

In just two months, the master created 9 panels, of which, however, only 7 survived. After the theater closed in 1949, the panels were transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery and later restored. Now the exposition occupies hall No. 9, and it will be possible to admire it until mid-December. After that, the works will go to Montreal, to a major exhibition of Marc Chagall, and then return home again.

While you are wondering if these works are worth a look, Posta-Magazine has collected the most interesting facts about the artist.

The future famous avant-garde artist was born in the small Belarusian city of Vitebsk - there is still a legend that one day a boy will be born in this place who will glorify the city. On that day, July 7, 1887, there was a big and terrible fire in Vitebsk that burned half the city. The elements did not touch only a few houses, including the one where Chagall was born. Later, the artist will tell that it was for this reason that he had a craving for changing places all his life (a crib with a baby was constantly moved from corner to corner during a fire) and so often depicted in his paintings the fire that spared him. He painted the element in the form of a rooster with a fiery tree growing from the body of the bird. And the red color has since meant for the artist both life and death at the same time.

Legend has it that Marc Chagall and Kazimir Malevich were at enmity all their lives. And that it was the author of the "Black Square" who expelled his "colleague" from his native Vitebsk, filling the whole city with futuristic posters and busts, which greatly offended Chagall. “Plaster busts, which were ordered by vying with half-educated sculptors from my school. I'm afraid they were all washed away by Vitebsk rains long ago. My poor Vitebsk!” he wrote in his book.

Marc Chagall lived most of his life in France. But first he left for Moscow, and for a somewhat more banal reason - he was forced to do so by the Red Commissars who seized power. Then, in 1920, the artist was ordered to paint the Jewish Chamber Theater, which at that time was directed by Alexei Granovsky. It took Chagall forty days to create a masterpiece, but the theater management remained dissatisfied - he was not paid for his work. Later, Stanislavsky did the same with him at the Moscow Art Theater.

Disappointed, Chagall soon after these events left his homeland and went to France. But, as you know, "there is a blessing in disguise", over time, Chagall became the only artist in the world whose stained-glass windows are decorated with religious buildings of several confessions at once: synagogues, Lutheran churches, Catholic churches - only 15 buildings in the USA, Europe and Israel.

Specially commissioned by French President Charles de Gaulle, Chagall designed the ceiling of the Grand Opera in Paris, and soon after that he painted two panels for the New York Metropolitan Opera. In July 1973, a museum called "Bible Message" was opened in Nice, decorated with the works of the artist, who after some time was awarded national status by the government.

By the way, the works of Marc Chagall, along with the canvases of Pablo Picasso and Juan Miro, are considered the most sought after among the thieves of paintings - today more than half a thousand of his works are missing. Isn't this the main sign of the author's popularity?

Loving Chagall is also called the instigator of the sexual revolution in painting - for his love for depicting naked women. The artist's first model was called Thea Brahman. She was the daughter of the famous Vitebsk doctor Wolf Brahman and Chagall's first love. He did not have money for models, so the young lady posed for the young talent for free.

By the way, it was Thea who introduced Marc Chagall to his future wife and love of his life, Bella Rosenfeld. Which also posed for him at first, then waited for her return from Paris, and then, as the artist himself joked, "it all ended with a wedding crown." They gave birth to a daughter, Ida, and lived in love and harmony for 19 years, until Bella died in America. Chagall grieved and soon connected his life with the divorced wife of the Irish artist Virginia Haggard, with whom he gave birth to a boy named David. But Virginia left her husband, falling in love with a photographer, and Chagall remarried a few years later - to Valentina Brodskaya, the daughter of a manufacturer and sugar factory. Like all his other wives, she was from a wealthy family.

Another legend says that when Marc Chagall was in a bad mood, he liked to paint either biblical scenes with an indispensable crucifixion, or wild flowers, among which thistles and cornflowers especially distinguished. The townsfolk preferred to buy the latter, which greatly upset the artist.

Marc Chagall is often called a gravity breaker. These his flying images of people in love, it seems, do not leave anyone indifferent. Another legend says that a certain gypsy once told the artist that he would live a long and eventful life, love extraordinary women and die in flight. And what do you think - the prediction came true: on March 28, 1985, the 98-year-old artist entered the elevator to go up to the second floor of his French mansion, and during this short flight his heart stopped.

Exhibition of the little-known graphic heritage of Marc Chagall (1887-1985). At the exhibition "Marc Chagall. The origins of the artist's creative language" the artist's work is presented in the context of the search for the origins of his art

Chagall belonged to a generation of artists who at the beginning of the 20th century, in an attempt to find themselves, their own figurative system and plastic language, turned to folk art. Chagall did not receive a consistent professional education, his first and main teacher was the natural environment - the Jewish, Russian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, French environment, "that living water" that "charged" and inspired the master throughout his life.

The real and incredible events captured by the artist are firmly connected with the earthly environment by key household items for him, signs of a place that have become characteristic Chagall's "passwords": from the naive sign of a hairdresser in Vitebsk or a milkman in Paris to the cross of an Orthodox cathedral or the chimeras of Notre Dame in Paris, from simple embroidery to a menorah and Torah, from a rickety peasant hut to the Vilnius synagogue and the gates of the Jewish cemetery, from popular prints and illustrations of folk publications, wandering musicians to the banners of the revolution. The artist claimed: "It is not true that my art is fantastic! I am a realist, I love the earth!".

The basis of the exposition in the Tretyakov Gallery is made up of works from the collections of the artist's family: unique, never exhibited in Russia, works of the "family circle" - self-portraits, portraits of mother, grandmother, cousins, sister, wife Bella and daughter Ida, executed in the late 1900s - 1910s. In these works, the viewer is presented with a kind of autobiography of the artist, a chronicle of his family (At the window. Mother and daughter. 1908; Ring. 1908-1909; Model. The artist's sister. 1910; Birth. 1911 and others). The engraved history of Chagall's life is embodied in the sheets of the series "My Life" (1922). A peculiar leitmotif of the exhibition is the image of his beloved city - Vitebsk, which is present in one form or another in all the master's paintings.

A group of works from the 1960s-1970s in a rare collage technique also came from the French collection (Triumph of Music. Sketch for a panel for the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Art Center. 1966, The Clown and his Shadow (Blue Violinist). 1964. Lilac Nude. 1967. Anthem Clock Embankment, 1968).

Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin provided for the exhibition Landscape with a Goat (Liozno) (1910), In the Hall of Thea (1910), Room on Gorokhovaya Street (1910), created in Russia in 1910, presented to the museum by Ida Chagall. Works of the first Parisian period, examples of Chagall's interpretation of modern French art - "Nude with Flowers", "Reclining Nude" (both - 1911) - provided by the Sepherot Foundation (Liechtenstein).

For the first time, the Moscow audience will be shown Chagall's youthful albums recently acquired in France, originating from the archive of Blaise Cendrars, writer and poet, friend and translator of the master, who introduced the young artist to the circle of Parisian avant-garde artists (collection of T. and I. Manasherovs, Moscow).

In addition to the original drawings, the exhibition also includes illustrations for Dead Souls by N.V. Gogol (1923-1925) from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, made on the initiative of the Parisian gallery owner and publisher of the series "Artist's Book" Ambroise Vollard, received as a gift from the author in 1927 year.

The famous "Wedding Service" (1951-1952. Ceramics, white enamel, painting), created by Chagall in honor of the wedding of his daughter Ida (private collection, Paris) and two marble sculptures for the fountain - "Fish" and "Bird" will also be discoveries for the domestic public. (1964. Collection of the Pierre Janade Foundation, Martini, Switzerland). The objects of folk art presented at the exhibition from the Russian Ethnographic Museum (St. Petersburg) and the Museum of the History of Jews in Russia (Moscow) will complement the audience's understanding of the origins of Chagall's figurative system.

So what? I must admit - c "est captivant. [It's charming (French).] There's nothing to be done. This is the art that should disgust me to an extreme degree. This is what I hate in all other areas of life (I still don’t I have forgotten how to hate), with which, despite all my spiritual fatigue, I still cannot reconcile myself - and yet it captivates, I would even say - enchants, if you keep the exact meaning of the word. There are some secret charms in the art of Chagall, some kind of magic that, like hashish, acts not only in addition to consciousness, but also in spite of it<...>

Chagall won the Carnegie Prize. This is already a kind of global consecration. [Confession (French).] But even before that, for decades, he has belonged to those artists whose names have gained worldwide fame, about whom critics do not write except using ready-made formulas, and this is an expression of the greatest reverence. Chagall is a real vedette, like, let's say, Chaplin. And this recognition can be considered well-deserved. He really approached the era, he stirs in people such feelings that for some reason they are drawn to experience. You can still find in this art elements of demonic glamor or the action of unclean forces, but it is not allowed to talk about this, and if it is allowed, then only in an ironic tone, or as some kind of “allegory”. Undoubtedly, there is something in common between the work of Chagall and the work of all kinds of artists - demoniacs of the Middle Ages, some of whom practiced "decorating" the most sacred cathedrals with all sorts of sculptural devilry, the other surrounded the miniatures of prayer books with the most reckless and so malicious grimaces. The same devilry was carried away by such great masters of painting as Bosch or the elder Brueghel, like Schongauer and like Grunewald - and with all of them Chagall has at least this in common that he completely submits to the arbitrariness of his imagination; that he writes whatever comes into his head; that he is generally in the power of something that defies any reasonable definition. However, Chagall's creations differ simply from nonsense and pranks and from the crazy creativity of crazy creations precisely by their genuine charms.

The current exhibition (opened at the gallery May 12, rue Bonaparte) once again confirmed in me my attitude towards the art of Chagall (I was one of the first to appreciate this art a quarter of a century ago), and at the same time it dispelled the doubt that crept into me ; is Chagall not snobbish; has he not become a charlatan, has he turned, pushed to that by success, into a banal trickster who trades in what once gave him genuine inspiration? Such questions could quite naturally creep into the soul, since Chagall's repertoire is still the same limited, and he only does what he repeats the same themes.

So at this exhibition, we again saw all the same flying bearded Jews, lovers reclining on the sofa, white brides, acrobats, delicate ephebes with bouquets, fluttering angels, bent miserable violinists, and all this interspersed with some kind of musical goats, with giant chickens, with calves and apocalyptic horses. Yes, and in the sense of the background, this is again the same black sky with multi-colored halos of the luminaries, the same houses of a dirty hole from a terrible backwoods, the same melted snow, or window frames, green bushes, wall clocks, seven-candlesticks, tori. Only the arrangement of these various elements changes, and the format of the picture changes. It can be seen that the artist simply cannot do without other of these obligatory details, and no, no, and they will creep into his composition, which seems to him unfinished, until just such a goat-violinist or a winged herald finds a place for itself.

I went to the exhibition reluctantly, in anticipation of precisely these repetitions, which, over the years of my acquaintance with Chagall's work, had become very pallable. But this new demonstration of the “exercise with a limited number of props” not only did not upset me, but it captivated me, and, most importantly, this session did not give the impression of a stunt, or even to the point of complete insensibility of a jagged trick. In every picture, in every drawing of Chagall, there is still a life of its own, and, consequently, its own raison d "etre. Somehow, all this, even the most familiar, touches; there is no regret like “this is such a wonderful talent , but he exchanges himself, he limits himself in such a way. " Chagall simply remained true to himself, otherwise he cannot create. But when he takes up brushes and paints, something rolls on him, and he does what he is told by the one who controls him deity - so it turns out that the fault of the deity, if everything turns out the same.

But only the deity is, of course, not Apollo. The most seductive and certainly seductive thing in Chagall is the colors, and not only their combination, but the colors themselves, each color taken by itself. This manner of laying paints is charming, what is called texture. But these colorful charms are by no means of Apollonian origin. There is neither harmonious melody nor well-established harmony in them, nor is there any task, carrying out any idea. Everything appears randomly, and it is impossible to find any intentions and laws in this continuous improvisation. Inspirations are more than enough, but inspiration is of the order to which artists who are fully in control of their work are somewhat condescending. Why should there not be such art, why not enjoy it? We amuse ourselves with the drawings of children or amateurs, we enjoy the often helpless products of folk art - everything in which immediate instinct operates and in which there is no regulating consciousness. Moreover, it is even useful to enjoy it, it has a refreshing effect, it gives new impulses. But the Apollonian beginning begins only from the moment when instinct gives way to will, knowledge, a certain system of ideas, and, finally, the influence of an entire traditional culture.

All this was revered until the beginning of the 20th century as real art; museums acquaint us with the history of this art, and because of such art, these museums have acquired in modern life the significance of priceless repositories, almost temples. We communicate in them with the highest and deepest minds (even if these minds were sometimes expressed in very awkward, strange forms, or even simply condescending to a joke, to jokes). But a strange impression will be made in these same museums by the paintings of Chagall and other artists, born of our confused, unaware, a quel saint se vouer [Which saint to worship (French).] era. Of course, they will express their era and will even do it better than any pictures of a more reasonable and sober character, or such pictures that betray a great schooling. However, I doubt that future generations will be filled with respect for our era after such an acquaintance with it, and will look back at us the way we look back at the different phases of the human past - with tenderness, with tenderness, and even envy. Pious people among these future (how mysterious!) generations, deducting the soul of our time from these most typical works for him (from Chagall's painting, among many others), will rather consider it fortunate that such a nightmare has dissipated, and will turn to heaven with a prayer that he didn't repeat himself.

I would like to single out one of the paintings in this Chagall exhibition. If it is no less nightmarish than the others, if it is very characteristic of Chagall, if the improvisational principle dominates in it, then nevertheless, it seems to me, it is more serious than anything else, it undoubtedly suffered, and it is felt that, creating her, the artist, instead of resorting to the usual creative excitement, which has in common with a sour-sweet drowsiness, was awakened by something, seriously frightened and indignant. There is no doubt that the real events were the reason for the creation of this vision.<…>However, the very meaning of the symbol presented is not clear to me. Why is it that the pale corpse of Christ nailed to the cross cuts obliquely in white radiance the darkness spilled over the picture?! Various other symbols are also incomprehensible (incomprehensible precisely as symbols) that are scattered around the picture. However, on the whole, this “vision” strikes and subjugates attention. Should the presence of Christ be interpreted as a ray of hope? Or do we have an atoning sacrifice? Or is an attempt made to denounce the culprit of countless troubles? Others considered that all the troubles that befell mankind during the long centuries of the Christian era were the direct fruits of that teaching, which, preaching mercy and love, in real experience, entailed more cruel and malicious consequences than everything that preceded it.

How to solve the problem, I do not know. The picture itself does not contain an answer, and I do not intend to turn to the creator himself for verbal comments (if he wishes to give them). But one thing, in any case, remains indisputable. In the picture "Christ" something is presented in the highest degree tragic and such that it fully corresponds to the abomination of the era being lived through. This is the document of the soul of our time. And this is some kind of cry, some kind of cry, this is the true pathos! Perhaps this picture also means a turn in the very work of Chagall, his desire to move away from his former “seductive fun”, and in this case, we can expect other similar revelations from him in the future. Chagall is a true artist, and what he says with all sincerity will always be significant and interesting.

A retrospective of Marc Chagall (1887-1985), dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the birth of the Belarusian and French artist, opens today at the Tretyakov Gallery. The Engineering Building on Lavrushinsky Lane houses more than 150 graphic works, as well as paintings, author's sculpture, works of applied art from foreign collections, Russian museum and private collections. The exhibition reveals the little-known heritage of Chagall - drawings, watercolors and gouaches almost unknown to us - from early Vitebsk sketches to late Parisian collages, as well as Chagall's printed graphics - famous illustrations for the Bible (1931–1956) and Lafontaine's "Fables" made in the etching technique (1950–1952).

"Self-portrait in front of the house", (1914), cardboard pasted on canvas, oil. Private collection, Paris

The exposition in the Tretyakov Gallery is based on works from the collections of the artist's family: unique, never exhibited in Russia, works of the "family circle" - self-portraits, portraits of mother, grandmother, cousins, sister, wife Bella and daughter Ida, executed at the end of 1900-10- x years. These canvases constitute a kind of autobiography of Chagall, a chronicle of his family. And the leitmotif of the exhibition is the image of Vitebsk, beloved by the artist, which is somehow present in all his paintings.

Many exhibits were brought from France, in particular, a group of works of the 1960s-1970s in a rare collage technique ("The Triumph of Music. Panel Design for the Metropolitan Opera", "The Clown and His Shadow (Blue Violinist)", "Purple Nude", " Anthem of the Clock Embankment").For the first time, the Moscow audience will also be shown Chagall's youthful albums recently acquired in France, coming from the archive of Blaise Cendrars, writer and poet, friend and translator of the master, who introduced the young artist to the circle of Parisian avant-garde artists.

"Wedding service", (1951-1952), ceramics, white enamel, painting

A discovery for the Russian public will also be the famous "Wedding Service" created by Chagall in honor of the wedding of his daughter Ida (private collection, Paris), as well as two marble sculptures for the fountain - "Fish" and "Bird" (1964. Collection of the Pierre Janade Foundation, Martini , Switzerland).

The project is included in the program of the Year of the French Language and Literature in Russia, thus denoting one of the main features of Marc Chagall's work - his internationality. The exhibition will run until September 30, 2012.

"Anthem of the Clock Embankment", (1968), paper, collage, mixed media. Private collection, Paris

Text: Daria Gorshkova