Marc Chagall Research Paper
Calvin Suster
Art 1: Drawing
November 30, 2015
Marc Chagall Marc Zakharovich Chagall, who was a painter an illustrator, was born July 7th, 1887 in present day Belarus. At the time of his birth Belarus had not existed and it was part of the Russian Empire. Marc was born into a Lithuanian Jewish family in Lioza near the city of Vitebsk and Lioza was a small town with around 66,000 people living in it. Half the population of this city was Jewish so Marc grew up around people who were also Jewish. It was a picturesque city comprised of churches and synagogues. Marc was the eldest of nine children and the family name Shagal is a variant of the name Segal and this is a Jewish community usually born into the Levitic family. His father was a herring …show more content…
merchant and his mother sold groceries out of their home. At this time in Russia the Jewish children were not allowed to attend the Russian schools and universities.
The movement of Jews within the city were also restricted, so Chagall attended primary school at his local synagogue. His mother later bribed the principle with 50 robles for his high school to accept him even though he was a Jew. A major turning point in his artistic career happened when he noticed a fellow student drawing. He asked the student what he was doing and the student said "Go and find a book in the library, idiot, choose any picture you like, and just copy it". He went to the library and began copying pictures out of all the books he could find, he found this so rewarding that he soon decided that he would like to become an artist. Chagall told his mother of his aspirations and he attended the studio of Yehuda Pen who was a realist artist and he soon realized that this style of academic portrait painting did not suit him. Chagall later delved into the styles of Cubism and Expressionism. Cubism is the style in art in which perspective with a single viewpoint was abandoned and use was made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and later a collage. Another style he helped to create is Expressionism and Expressionism is the style of painting in which the artist seeks to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world. Stained glass windows, murals, tapestries, and Ceramics and Sculpture were all other forms of artwork in which …show more content…
he working in. In many of his paintings Chagall added colors in such a way to attract the viewers’ attention towards it and to lock you into it.
It’s not that he added many different colors its how he blended and distinguished the colors from one another that caught the viewer’s attention. Through his colors schemes he was able to create a “vibrant atmosphere” that was based on “his own personal vision.” Many of Chagall’s inspirations and subject matter stems from his experiences he had as a child growing up in a small town living in a wooden house with animals surrounding him. When he lived in France he was finally able to express this in the atmosphere of artistic freedom. Some things always remained constant in his work such as musicians and acrobats, Wullschlager explained the source of these images:
For him, clowns and acrobats always resembled figures in religious paintings... The evolution of the circus works... reflects a gradual clouding of his worldview, and the circus performers now gave way to the prophet or sage in his work—a figure into whom Chagall poured his anxiety as Europe darkened, and he could no longer rely on the lumiére-liberté of France for inspiration.
Chagall also described his love for circus
people:
Why am I so touched by their makeup and grimaces? With them I can move toward new horizons... Chaplin seeks to do in film what I am trying to do in my paintings. He is perhaps the only artist today I could get along with without having to say a single word. Marc helped to bring about the popularity in the styles of Cubism and Expressionism. Some of his accomplishments were his work in stained glass. He designed the stained glass for the Metz Cathedral and this was a perfect amalgamation of fresh and vibrant colors that constantly refracted the natural light flowing through in different ways. Another accomplishment was under his direction Yvetter Cauquil-Prince created three beautiful tapestries for the state hall of the Knesset in Israel. These tapestries also included 12 floor mosaics and a wall mosaic. I find that it was amazing for him to preserver and be able to create his own style of painting with no real formal art education other than that of what he received as a young man. He was able to become a famous artist although he grew up in a small town and being Jewish at this time in history certainly didn’t help him because it was right before WWII and he was fortunately able to escape occupied France. I also like his work because its so reminiscent of his childhood and he never forgot where he came from. I also enjoy the colorful stained glass he created.
Bibliography
MLA Style
"Marc Chagall." 2015. The Famous People website. Dec 1 2015, 09:51 //www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/marc-chagall-3372.php.
Read more at http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/marc-chagall-3372.php#wxgtRzrJ5cblh8wS.99
Art 1: Drawing
November 30, 2015
Marc Chagall Marc Zakharovich Chagall, who was a painter an illustrator, was born July 7th, 1887 in present day Belarus. At the time of his birth Belarus had not existed and it was part of the Russian Empire. Marc was born into a Lithuanian Jewish family in Lioza near the city of Vitebsk and Lioza was a small town with around 66,000 people living in it. Half the population of this city was Jewish so Marc grew up around people who were also Jewish. It was a picturesque city comprised of churches and synagogues. Marc was the eldest of nine children and the family name Shagal is a variant of the name Segal and this is a Jewish community usually born into the Levitic family. His father was a herring …show more content…
merchant and his mother sold groceries out of their home. At this time in Russia the Jewish children were not allowed to attend the Russian schools and universities.
The movement of Jews within the city were also restricted, so Chagall attended primary school at his local synagogue. His mother later bribed the principle with 50 robles for his high school to accept him even though he was a Jew. A major turning point in his artistic career happened when he noticed a fellow student drawing. He asked the student what he was doing and the student said "Go and find a book in the library, idiot, choose any picture you like, and just copy it". He went to the library and began copying pictures out of all the books he could find, he found this so rewarding that he soon decided that he would like to become an artist. Chagall told his mother of his aspirations and he attended the studio of Yehuda Pen who was a realist artist and he soon realized that this style of academic portrait painting did not suit him. Chagall later delved into the styles of Cubism and Expressionism. Cubism is the style in art in which perspective with a single viewpoint was abandoned and use was made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and later a collage. Another style he helped to create is Expressionism and Expressionism is the style of painting in which the artist seeks to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world. Stained glass windows, murals, tapestries, and Ceramics and Sculpture were all other forms of artwork in which …show more content…
he working in. In many of his paintings Chagall added colors in such a way to attract the viewers’ attention towards it and to lock you into it.
It’s not that he added many different colors its how he blended and distinguished the colors from one another that caught the viewer’s attention. Through his colors schemes he was able to create a “vibrant atmosphere” that was based on “his own personal vision.” Many of Chagall’s inspirations and subject matter stems from his experiences he had as a child growing up in a small town living in a wooden house with animals surrounding him. When he lived in France he was finally able to express this in the atmosphere of artistic freedom. Some things always remained constant in his work such as musicians and acrobats, Wullschlager explained the source of these images:
For him, clowns and acrobats always resembled figures in religious paintings... The evolution of the circus works... reflects a gradual clouding of his worldview, and the circus performers now gave way to the prophet or sage in his work—a figure into whom Chagall poured his anxiety as Europe darkened, and he could no longer rely on the lumiére-liberté of France for inspiration.
Chagall also described his love for circus
people:
Why am I so touched by their makeup and grimaces? With them I can move toward new horizons... Chaplin seeks to do in film what I am trying to do in my paintings. He is perhaps the only artist today I could get along with without having to say a single word. Marc helped to bring about the popularity in the styles of Cubism and Expressionism. Some of his accomplishments were his work in stained glass. He designed the stained glass for the Metz Cathedral and this was a perfect amalgamation of fresh and vibrant colors that constantly refracted the natural light flowing through in different ways. Another accomplishment was under his direction Yvetter Cauquil-Prince created three beautiful tapestries for the state hall of the Knesset in Israel. These tapestries also included 12 floor mosaics and a wall mosaic. I find that it was amazing for him to preserver and be able to create his own style of painting with no real formal art education other than that of what he received as a young man. He was able to become a famous artist although he grew up in a small town and being Jewish at this time in history certainly didn’t help him because it was right before WWII and he was fortunately able to escape occupied France. I also like his work because its so reminiscent of his childhood and he never forgot where he came from. I also enjoy the colorful stained glass he created.
Bibliography
MLA Style
"Marc Chagall." 2015. The Famous People website. Dec 1 2015, 09:51 //www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/marc-chagall-3372.php.
Read more at http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/marc-chagall-3372.php#wxgtRzrJ5cblh8wS.99