Marc Chagall, who died on the 28 March 1985 at the age of
97, was the last great representative of the Ecole de Paris. He reached out to
people like no other artist in the 20th Century, inspiring
fascination and admiration across the world.
He managed to combine his Russian roots and the Parisian
avant-garde, with its Fauvist, Cubist, Expressionist styles, to create a visual
language of his own. Throughout his life, he preferred the company of poets to
that of painters, mistrusting theories of painting, especially dogmatic ones.
Thus he did not fall under the name of any school, founded no school of his own
and had no followers or successors. Visiting Chagall in his studio in 1913,
Apollinaire called the artist’s paintings “sur-naturel”, accurately describing
the “super” or “trans-natural” pictorial contents of the unconscious, of
dream-like memory. Some ten years later the Surrealists drew their images from
the same source. “The good days have passed when art nourished itself
exclusively on elements of the external world, the world of forms, lines and
colours. Today we are interested in everything, not just the external wall, but
also the inner works of dream and imagination”, Chagall said many years later
in a lecture on the nature of his paintings. In 1941, Andre Breton, the founder
and theoretician of Surrealism, wrote in a late tribute to Marc Chagall when
both were in “exile” in the US: “His great lyrical explosion happened around
the year 1911, when solely through Chagall metaphor made his triumphant entry
into modern painting”. Although, with his imagery, he was in effect one of the
main pioneers of Surrealism however in the 20s he refused an invitation from
Max Ernst and Paul Eluard to publicly align himself with the Movement.
His palette became brighter and he turned into the
great colourist, of whom Picasso later said: “Now that Matisse is dead, Chagall
is the only painter who really understands what colour is…There is never been
anybody since Renoir who has the feeling for light that Chagall has.” His colour abilities made the artist painted his first flower
compositions, which show Chagall’s quit loving immersion in the wonders of
nature. His happy mood of the 20s and early 30s is also reflected in other
subject matters: lovers, animals, musicians and circus.
As the first signs of the persecution of the Jews
in Germany became manifest, Chagall devoted himself to biblical themes which he
illustrated wonderfully using all the colour techniques he experimented.
In exile in America his pictorial status condensed,
on the basis of the old iconographies, to hermetic picture parables with a dark
serious character.
At the same time, however, he had an unexpected
opportunity to design stage sets. This décor shows Chagall’s colours singing
again in their freedom and even more when he returned to France where he worked
on numerous public commissions.
Chagall lived through the most turbulent years of
20th century. He endured war and revolution, escaped the Holocaust
in exile in the USA.
Despite all this, the central theme of the artist’s
oeuvre is love: “Despite all the troubles of our world, in my heart I have
never given up on the love in which I was brought up or on man’s hope in love.
In life, just as on the artist’s palette, there is but one single colour that
gives meaning to life and art - the colour of love”. This conviction was
Chagall’s lifelong credo.
The Master of Printmaking
Marc Chagall began his distinguished career as a
printmaker in 1922 in Berlin. He first experimented with the etching and dry
point technique, depicting scenes and figures from his youth in Vitebsk.
Chagall’s first major commission was an illustration of the Fables de Jean de
la Fontaine – of which we have examples on page 12 and page 13 - and which was
ordered by the French dealer Ambroise Vollard.
Chagall loved books and had a great respect for
printmaking. He happily accepted to illustrate this book for Vollard.
The Bible series was also
commissioned by Vollard. To find inspiration Chagall prepared a trip to the
Holy Land and mentioned “Since my earliest childhood, I have been captivated by
the Bible. It has always seemed to me the greatest source of poetry of all
time.” In 1931, Vollard tragically died in a car accident and thus the Bible
series was postponed to be finally published in 1956 by Teriade.
From the 1950’s onwards the master realised an
exceptional body of lithographic works comprising 1,100 lithographs depicting
his favourite subject matters: marriages, flowers, animals, birds, the prophets
from the Bible and the Circus.
It is not possible to show Chagall’s immense
graphic oeuvre without talking about his collaborator Charles Sorlier who from
the 1960’s helped Chagall in the lithographs he realised. Sorlier was particularly involved in the lithographs from Saint-Paul de
Vence. Expert in his field, Chagall treated him as a son rewarding him with
multitude of prints, gouaches and drawings.
Chagall’s creativity with this medium was limitless
and we hope the artworks in this catalogue will give an extensive vision of the
immense body of work printed by the artist.
Our
exhibition
We are glad to be able to show an outstanding
collection of important works by Marc Chagall. The highlight of our collection
is the wonderful oil on canvas titled “Study
for a Woman in Red”, realised in 1956, and previously part of the artist
collection and of the Marc Chagall Estate. The work also comes with a
certificate of authenticity issued by the Chagall committee.
Study for a Woman in Red, 1956
Other two rare pieces are the two oil monotypes “The Clock” and “Red Boot”. Marc Chagall began to produce monotypes only when
Gerald Cramer, his Swiss publisher at the time suggested it to him in 1961.
From that point, Chagall worked with Cramer and the printer Jacques Frelaut to
produce an outstanding group of 306 monotypes including our works. Monotype is the most painterly method among the printmaking techniques and
is often called "the painterly print" or the "printer's
painting. The works were painted with Oil paint on a copper plate and then they
were pulled on paper. These works are therefore unique pieces.
An exhibition of examples from the Chagall
monotypes body of works was presented at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New
York between November 1979 and January 1980. Riva Castlemain, Director of the
Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at the MOMA, interestingly noted at
the time that "This exhibition is about the creative interaction of three
devoted people".
The Clock, 1975
Other important works are represented by a group of
drawings coming directly from the David McNeil collection (the artist's son): “The Bridge” , “Young Woman with Bouquet” , “Standing Nude” .
The Bridge, 1910
From the “Fables
de la Fontaine “, realised in 1927 to the 1960’s
lithographs illustrating the Bible, it seems that Marc Chagall has always been
a brilliant and exceptional printmaker. His ability to create wonderful works
such as in the “Saint Jean de the Cap
Ferrat” and in the “Bouquet
of Roses” was limitless. His use of colours, of lines and his
recurrent motifs such as the rooster, the lovers and the clock made him one the
greatest artistic minds of the 20th century. Printmaking was crucial
to his oeuvre, as the artist himself declared: “It seems to me that something would have been lacking in my art if,
besides my painting, I had not also produce etchings and lithographs”.
Chagall’s love of art was profound and we hope this
exhibition will transmit the passion that animated this great Master during in
his long prolific life.
We are looking forward to
welcoming you in our Hampstead gallery!
Gilden’s Arts Gallery is in Fine Art Asia 2013! We are
excited to be in vibrant Hong Kong. It is not only the gateway to Asia, but it
is also considered its artistic capital. And we can sure see why! At the Fair we are surrounded by an amazing
mix of fine arts and antiques, representing the best from both the East and the
West.
