Marc Chagall (1887

Lexicon of Terms

Photo: The three Chagall tapestries lining the wall of the Chagall State Hall.

The three Chagall tapestries lining the front wall of the Chagall State Hall.

Photo: The central image of Chagall's wall mosaic on the side of the Chagall State Hall.

The central image of Chagall's wall mosaic in the Chagall State Hall.

Marc Chagall (1887–1985)

Marc Chagall was a Jewish artist born in Russia to a needy Hassidic family. He studied in a Cheder and later in a public school, until he obtained a scholarship to an art school in St. Petersburg in 1907. He also studied with artist Leon Bakst. During 1910–1914, Chagall lived in Paris and befriended artists Modigliani, Leger, Luna and Apollinaire.

Chagall's solidified his artistic style before leaving Russia, and often made use of images from the Jewish shtetls of his childhood. His art was characterized by bright colors, poetic make-up, naivety and dreaminess. In Paris, his work was influenced by Cubism and the Orphism of Robert Delaunay.

In 1914 Chagall returned to Vitebsk and enlisted into the army. Upon the breakout of the October Revolution he was appointed as Commissar of the Arts and the founding director of the "Free Academy of the Arts." He returned to France in 1923 and later moved to the United States. The rise of anti-Semitism in Europe during the 1930's was noticed in dark images introduced in his paintings.

Chagall created in oil and watercolor. Many of his paintings are presented in galleries and museums worldwide. His work also included illustrations in books, sculpture in earthenware, and designs of theatre decor. In his later years he specialized in the creation of large-scale works of art: Frescos on the opera buildings in New York and Paris; Works of stained glass in the Cathedral of Metz and the synagogue of the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, and the Gobelin tapestries and mosaics in the Knesset building.