The painter as poet. A world of floating symbols

For Marc Chagall (1887–1985), painting was an intricate tapestry of dreams, tales, and traditions. His instantly recognizable visual language carved out a unique early 20th-century niche, often identified as one of the earliest expressions of psychic experience.

Chagall’s canvases are characterized by loose brushwork, deep colors, a particular fondness for blue, and a repertoire of recurring tropes including musicians, roosters, rooftops, flowers, and floating lovers. For all their ethereal charms, his compositions were often rich and complex in their references. They wove together not only colors and forms, but also his Jewish roots with his present encounters in Paris, markers of faith with gestures of love and symbols of hope with testimonies of trauma.

Across scenes of birth, love, marriage, and death, this dependable artist introduction explores the many versions of Chagall’s rich vocabulary. From visions of his native Vitebsk in modern-day Belarus to images of the Eiffel Tower, we explore the unique aesthetic of one of the most readily identifiable modern masters and one of the most influential Jewish artists of all time.

About the Series:

Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:

* a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
* approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
* a concise biography

Featuring one hundred works from throughout Chagall’s career, this dazzling exhibition catalog focuses on the artist’s engagement with life’s most primal and universal themes.

Steeped in tradition yet alive with imagination, Chagall’s enormous body of work reflects a profound connection to cultural roots and to the boundless possibilities of creative expression. This monograph brings fresh eyes to the most relevant aspects of Chagall’s oeuvre. It traces how, over eight decades, Chagall responded to his contemporaries’ experimentations with cubism, fauvism, and surrealism by creating his own visual language.

It offers a lively examination of overarching themes ― love and romance; Jewish tradition and history; spirituality and the daily life, based on memory and nostalgia ― and the ways they are reflected through repetition and variation over the years. And it reveals how Chagall’s flexible use of symbols contributes to build a fantastic cosmos grounded on the “logic of the illogical”.

Readers will come to understand how Chagall was essentially a storyteller with an enormous gift for color and line, and a narrative artist who understood the power of symbolism in his own terms.

About the Author:

Gisela Kirpicsenko is curator at the Albertina Museum, Vienna.

The Russian Avant-Garde, which brought about an artistic revolution between 1905 and 1934, represents one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of 20th-century art. 

Artists like Malevich, Kandinsky and Chagall are highly esteemed the world over. But this movement was much more diverse than is generally realised. For the first time this artistic wealth is being presented in a major sequence of pictures. 

140 masterpieces of painting demonstrate the parallel development of widely different styles, design principles and aesthetic ideas. 

The avant-garde artists influenced each other or were sometimes in conflict with each other. At the same time you could find advocates of representational Expressionism and supporters of pure abstraction; styles like Primitivism, Cubo-Futurism and Suprematism followed each other in succession. 

Surprising contrasts of works by different artists demonstrate the differences, so that the successive conflicting –isms are clearly demonstrated. 

Through this visual confrontation the picture of all the many different forms of Russian avant-garde come alive.

Chagall’s creative breakthrough came at a time when his life was torn between contrasting experiences.

Chagall lived in Paris from 1911 until 1914, creating paintings that combined his recollections of Russian provincial life with iconic fragments of the metropolis around him. Reminiscences of Russian folk art make an appearance in his works from the period, as do the most recent stylistic experiments he was exposed to through his life in the center of the artistic avant-garde and his acquaintance with many of the most progressive artists, including Picasso, Robert and Sonja Delaunay, and Jacques Lipchitz. Overtaken by the outbreak of World War I during a visit back home, Chagall was forced to spend the next eight years in Russia.

The unexpected change of circumstances initially prompted a phase of searching self-scrutiny that speaks from many paintings and works on paper created in and after 1914. The artist produced numerous self-portraits, depictions of Jewish life, and designs for the stage setting for the celebration of the first anniversary of the October Revolution 1918.

The catalogue contains a representative selection of works from what was for Chagall a period of rapid artistic evolution and personal as well as political upheaval.

В издании представлены созданные на библейские сюжеты пастели Шагала, которые входят в собрание Национального музея Марка Шагала в Ницце, где представлен его знаменитый цикл - "Библейское послание". Автор книги Пьер Провуайер - первый хранитель музея, он работал вместе с Марком Шагалом и бережно сохранил традиции, заложенные самим великим мастером.

В книге собрано более 60 гуашей Шагала на библейские сюжеты, в том числе 22 работы, которые публикуются впервые. Они входят в собрание Национального музея Марка Шагала в Ницце, где представлен его знаменитый цикл - "Библейское послание". Три главы книги, написанные ведущими европейскими специалистами по наследию Шагала, раскрывают разные аспекты его жизни и творчества.

Colourful dreams and tales

Chagall's world full of everyday miracles

The Belarusian painter Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is widely regarded as epitomizing the "painter as poet". The worldwide admiration he commanded remains unparalleled by any artist of the century.

Chagall’s paintings, steeped in mythology and mysticism, portray colourful dreams and tales that are deeply rooted in his Russian Jewish origins. The memories and yearning they evoke recall his native Vitebsk, and the great events that mark the life of ordinary people: birth, love, marriage and death. They tell of a world full of everyday miracles - in the room of lovers, on the streets of Vitebsk, beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Heaven and earth seem to meet in a topsy-turvy world in which whimsical figures of people and animals float through the air with gravity-defying serenity.

About the Series:

• Each book in TASCHEN’s  Basic Art Series  features:
• a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
• a concise biography
• approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions

The authors:
Rainer Metzger studied art history, history and German studies in Munich and Augsburg. He received his doctorate in 1994, and has worked as a fine arts journalist for the Viennese newspaper Der Standard. He has written numerous books on art, including volumes on Van Gogh and Chagall.

Ingo F. Walther (1940-2007) was born in Berlin and studied medieval studies, literature, and art history in Frankfurt am Main and Munich. He published numerous books on the art of the Middle Ages and of the 19th and 20th centuries. Walther's many titles for TASCHEN include Vincent Van Gogh, Picasso, Art of the 20th Century, and Codices Illustres.

Посмотреть русскоязычное издание книги Chagall - Шагал

Colorful dreams and tales

Chagall's world full of everyday miracles

The Belarusian painter Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is widely regarded as epitomizing the "painter as poet". The worldwide admiration he commanded remains unparalleled by any artist of the century.

Chagall’s paintings, steeped in mythology and mysticism, portray colorful dreams and tales that are deeply rooted in his Russian Jewish origins. The memories and yearning they evoke recall his native Vitebsk, and the great events that mark the life of ordinary people: birth, love, marriage and death. They tell of a world full of everyday miracles—in the room of lovers, on the streets of Vitebsk, beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Heaven and earth seem to meet in a topsy-turvy world in which whimsical figures of people and animals float through the air with gravity-defying serenity.

About the Series:
Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:

• a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
• approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
• a concise biography

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) befreite auf seinen Bildern die Welt von den Fesseln der Schwerkraft und entrückte sie in die Freiheit der Poesie. Dabei inspirierten ihn Folklorismen seines weißrussischen Heimatorts Wizebsk ebenso wie seine jüdische Herkunft, die christliche Ikonografie und die Ausdrucksformen der internationalen Avantgarden, mit denen er sich ab 1911 in Berlin und Paris verstärkt auseinander setzt.

Eine exklusive Auswahl von über 100 kostbaren Arbeiten aus allen Schaffensperioden Chagalls stellt die vorliegende Sonderausgabe vor: Gemälde, Buchillustrationen und Gouachen, unter anderem aus dem Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, dem Staatlichen Russischen Museum in St. Petersburg und der Tretjakow Galerie in Moskau.

In his images, Marc Chagall (1887-1985) liberated the world from the chains of gravity and allowed it to enjoy the enraptured freedom of poetry. In the process, he was inspired by the folklore of his White Russian homeland, Wizebsk, as well as his Jewish ancestry, Christian iconography, and the expressive forms of international avant-garde art, which he explored more intensively after 1911 in Berlin and Paris.

This special-price edition features an exclusive selection of over one hundred treasured works from all of Chagall’s creative phases: paintings, book illustrations, and gouaches, including works in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Tretjakov Gallery in Moscow.

Adaptations of 16 of the renowned Russian-born French painter's finest stained glass works, among them I and the Village, The Cellist, Bride and Groom with Eiffel Tower, Equestrienne, The Green Violinist, and Girl on Horseback. Place colored plates near a source of bright light to create a glowing stained glass effect.

Marc Chagall, who died in 1985 at the age of 97, was without doubt one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. In his paintings he created a unique world full of pathos, poetry, humour and enchantment, drawing on vivid memories of Vitebsk, his birthplace and childhood home in today`s republic of Belarus. He was clearly influenced by Byzantine and Russian icon painting and folk art, but wished his own mythologigal floating figures and symbolism to be interpreted freely.

The poetry and biblical inspiration of his paintings have always appealed to a broad public, and his works are collected, exhibited and admired all over the world. Chagall`s enormous œuvre, spanning seven decades, apart from paintings, gouaches, water-colours and graphic works includes stained-glass windows, ceramics, mosaics, tapestries and sculptures.

About the Series:
TASCHEN portfolios feature high quality prints that beg to be framed. Tucked in each portfolio are 14 large-format reproductions, each with a brief description. Guaranteed to brighten any day, they also make great gifts for art lovers!

No doubt one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Marc Chagall (1887-1985) created a unique world full of pathos, poetry, humor, and enchantment, drawing on vivid memories of his Jewish upbringing in Russia. His original style and his connection to the past endured throughout his seven-decade career, despite the great movements and schools of 20th century art which he saw developing around him. All aspects of Chagall`s work are covered here, from paintings to stained glass, tapestries, ceramics, and more.

Книга о Марке Шагале (1887–1985): поэте, мечтателе, экзотическом создании.

Шагал казался своего рода посредником между разными мирами. Сын бедняков, выросший в многодетной, вечно нуждающейся семье, занял благодаря своему таланту достойное место в изысканном мире элегантных художественных салонов.

По своему внутреннему складу он был аутсайдером: то ли иудей, презревший древний запрет на создание образов, то ли русский, вырвавшийся из оков своей самодостаточности. Шагал всю жизнь сохранял особое, ни с чем не сравнимое обаяние аутсайдера.

Обыденность была столь далека от жизни художника, что, появляясь в его картинах, принимала форму странных видений. Своим искусством и своей жизнью художник усиленно культивировал образ одинокого визионера, гражданина мира, так и оставшегося ребенком, пришельца, заблудившегося в мире чудес. Его картины, полные религиозности и глубокой любви к родному краю, – возможно, самый страстный призыв, который когда-либо звучал в современном мире, к терпимости и уважению ко всему непохожему, другому.

Издание состоит из пяти глав, рассказывающих о жизни художника и об истории создания каждой картины, представленной в издании. В конце книги приводится хронология жизни и творчества мастера, проиллюстрированная документальными фотографиями.

Посмотреть англоязычное издание книги Шагал - Chagall