Marc Chagall: The Lost Jewish World

by Benjamin Harshav

"If I were not a Jew . . . I wouldn't have been an artist, or I would be a different artist altogether." -Marc Chagall, Leaves from My Notebook. Marc Chagall is one of the most popular artists of the 20th century, famous for his poetic, surreal images that represent a topsy-turvy world, combining fantasy and spirituality with a modernist style. This volume serves as a guide to the iconography of Chagall's best-loved work—in which he frequently included Jewish symbolism and folklore, sometimes overtly, sometimes in hidden, quite meaningful ways—offering insight into Chagall's Jewish roots and succinct interpretations of his major paintings, from his early masterpieces made in Russia and in Paris to his Yiddish art theater paintings. Harshav illuminates Chagall's most famous paintings of the Jewish shtetl, or provincial Russian town, and highlights the recognizable trademarks of his art, such as the "fiddler on the roof." It also interprets in detail Chagall's theater murals and his beautiful stained-glass windows at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Although Chagall is not known only as a Jewish artist, his background was the prism through which he saw the world and served as the language of his universally loved art.

Genres: Art

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 25, 2006

Reviews

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don't have to be Jewish to love this book, but you do have to want to know how the artist communicates through his paintings. The complexity of Chagall's inner life is explained here by the presentation of excellent plates of several of his major works, each then clearly discussed in detail explaining what each color, each symbol, each composition means and when it occurred in his life If you go to the MoMA in NYC, you can see Chagall's I and the Village, but you won't make much sense of it unless you either studied Chagall or read Harshav's explanation of it.

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting analysis of the Jewish aspects of Marc Chagall's life and painting. But a bit wooden and art historical in style for my taste.