Customer Reviews

Marc Chagall (Jewish Encounters)

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The reader turns the first page of this little book to see the 1929 oil on canvas painting, "Lovers" by Marc Chagall. The painting depicts a man and woman seated and embracing; the woman's head turned inward on the man's breast, while the man, an expression of calm and contentment, peers upward, watching a winged angel flying overhead, across a deep purple sky. The painting has the deep and rich signature colour of all Chagall's work, though lacks the intense emotional suffering and ambivalence that makes up so much of his oeuvre, however this painting evokes a mystical love, a true love which, in my opinion, expresses the relationship between the artist and his beautiful wife, Bella.

As part of the Jewish Encounter project, Marc Chagall by Jonathan Wilson is one contribution devoted to the promotion of Jewish literature, culture, and ideas. (One can find all these contributions here on Amazon.)

It can be observed that most of Chagall's work, according to the author, is an expression of his philosophy, his religious sensibility if you will, in the form of the "literalization of metaphors", deeply grounded in the mystical and symbolic Hasidic world and Yiddish folktales, which include in their writings the "repository of flying animals and miraculous events." (P. 13)

It is impossible to label Chagall's work as "Expressionism", but the representation of an acute imagination, coloured in fantasy, depicting highly charged religious symbols, including in several works, Christs Crucifixion in a variety of contexts. What I love about Chagall is the viewer is drawn into the work by its striking colour and busy subject matter and is compelled to study it, because the meaning of the painting must be discovered as it is not apparent on a superficial viewing.

Wilson does a wonderful job of narrating Chagall's life in terms of the major events that the artist experienced, spanning through the Russian revolution, two world wars, the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. Wilson suggests that in viewing Chagall's paintings against the backdrop of these major historical events will see the artist's work as a response to them, and his personal inner conflict between his "Jewishness" and his focus on Christ's Crucifixion, and also his attempt at secularism in many of his paintings.

My favourite paintings by the artist are his various representations of love that display an ethereal, mystical quality, a sublimeness that to me captures love in their most revealing forms, as Wilson comments,

"Chagall's vision of love, so appealing to the human soul, frequently involves a merging of two faces, or bodies, into one. In this regard he is Platonic, as his figures pursue their other halves in an apparent longing to become whole again. Over and again he paints the myth that Aristophanes recounts in The Symposium." (P.174)

Chagall's life Wilson suggests was an attempt through his art at the reconciliation between two worlds, a genuine effort universalizing or merging opposites, he writes,

"In his paintings, past and present, dream and reality, rabbi and clown, secular and observant, revolutionary and Jew, Jesus and Elijah...all commingle and merge in a world where history and geography but also the laws of physics and nature have been suspended." (P. 210)

Wilson's Marc Chagall is an erudite biography and insightful critical work. Although relatively short in length, manages to capture the artist who is considered along with Picasso and Matisse, one of the icons of Modernism.

A nice short study of Marc Chagall's personal life (wives, children, and homes) and of his essential cultural roots including religious inspirations and conflicts. Chagall was fated to live a long life amidst a century of enormous social turmoil and with direct emotional ties to countries in the middle of the storms --- the USSR, France, U.S. and Israel.

Professor Wilson is a fine writer with an eye for the arresting detail. His book is a very good overview of the complex life of a great artist.

(Readers will have to refer to the Internet or art books for the actual paintings referred to in this text---unless happily they have already in person viewed the work of Marc Chagall.)

"She loved Chagall and wasn't ashamed of that. T. Carmi, 'In Memory of Leah Goldberg'"

This quote is at the very beginning of Jonathan Wilson's Ode to Chagall or so it seemed. Wilson presents the details of Chagall's long and productive life 1887 to 1985. He also raises many engaging questions about the artist and person Marc Chagall. He does not try to fully explain why Chagall remained ambivalent about his identity as a Jew, a Frenchman, a Russian and as a narcissistic artist in the 20th century.

Chagall's prodigious output often overshadows the occasional intimacy of some of his work. The constant disruptions in his life and losses provide some framework for viewing and appreciating his art.

A shtetl Jew who becomes a major 20th century artist who gained international recognition sounds like an oxymoron. The 2nd commandment which prohibited graven images did not impede Chagall's commitment to making art.

His subjects reflect his life's journey and his style combined many of the powerful trends of the 20th century.

Wilson shares the good, the great, the personal and the disappointing thoroughly without any specific judgments.

Chagall's art celebrates the experiences of a romanticized Shtetl, the beauty and joy of love and ladies, the powerfully destructive forces of WW I and II as well as the Russian revolution - some of his work touches the core of our humanity while much of it borders heavily on sentimentality.

All of this and much more is packed in this concise and very readable volume.

Worthwhile quotes;

If artists have one big job, it is to move what is inside to the outside, to reveal secrets, and in so doing to allow us to discover who we are.

Chagall's artistic spirit resides close to that of the tellers of Hasidic tales, individuals who search out sparks of goodness in the bleakest of events and collect these firefly flashes over a dark sea as acts of tikkun. Hence, in terms of a political statement, we will find no equivalent to Guernica in Chagall's massive oeuvre.

No amount of financial or critical success later in life was ever quite able to dispel the aura of suspicion, or drain the well of bitterness........"If money was involved".
How slippery was Chagall's identity? He appears often as a chameleon figure, fiercely protective of his artistic independence and yet eager to please.

Many more salient and penetrating insights and questions are clearly articulated by Wilson

Certainly a very entertaining and saddening biography. It remains unclear if Wilson like Leah Goldberg loved Chagall.

This has made a fascinating artist even more interesting; and you can understand the impact of his life on his technique!