Marc Chagall and his times : a documentary narrative / Benjamin Harshav ; with translations from Russian, Yiddish, French, German, and Hebrew by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harshav, Benjamin, 1928-2015.

Contributor:

Chagall, Marc, 1887-1985.

Harshav, Barbara, 1940-

Language:

English

French

German

Hebrew

Russian

Yiddish

Subjects (All):

Chagall, Marc, 1887-1985.

Chagall, Marc.

Chagall, Marc, 1887-1985--Correspondence.

Artists--Russia (Federation)--Biography.

Artists.

Russia (Federation).

Artists--Russia (Federation)--Correspondence.

Genre:

Biographies.

Correspondence.

Personal correspondence.

Physical Description:

xx, 1026 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2004.

Summary:

This book presents a new and comprehensive biography of one of the most prominent artists of the twentieth century in dialogue with the events and ideologies of his time. It includes hundreds of private letters and documents written by Chagall and his contemporaries in Russian, Yiddish, French, English, and other languages, translated by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav into English and placed in their personal and historical context. The narrative encompasses Chagall's long life (1887-1985) in Russia, France, and the United States, as well as in Germany and Israel. It also explores his deep roots in folk culture, his personal relationships and loves, and his involvement with the art of the Russian Revolution, Surrealism, Communism, Zionism, Yiddish literature, and the State of Israel. The book exposes the complex relationships between Chagall's three cultural identities: Jewish, Russian, and French. It is a biography of the turbulent times of the twentieth century and the transformations of a Jew in it -- his meteoric rise from the "ghetto" of the Russian Pale of Settlement to the centers of modern culture.

Marc Chagall and His Times provides a major contribution to the understanding of some of the central problems of modern art: originality, the interaction between the formal discoveries of the avant garde and cultural or multi-cultural representation, and the relations between an artist's art and his personal biography

Contents:

Part 1 Roots

1. Imagining Chagall's Childhood and Youth 21

2. Chagall's First Autobiography 70

Part 2 Struggling Artist: 1900-1918

3. First Teachers: 1900-1910 169

4. Paris and Berlin: 1910-1914 198

5. Back to Russia: 1914-1918 222

Part 3 Art and Revolution: 1918-1923

6. Commissar of Art in Vitebsk: 1918-1920 241

7. Modern Yiddish Theater

Moscow: 1920-1922 277

8. Berlin: 1922-1923 308

Part 4 France Between Two World Wars: 1923-1941

9. Paris

"My Second Vitebsk": 1923-1929 317

10. Toward a Jewish Art Museum: 1929-1930 351

11. First Visit to Palestine: 1930-1933 362

Between the Open Sky and the Fires of Broadway: Chagall's Illustrations to Lyesin's Poetry 394

12. In Years of Crisis: 1933-1939 432

13. World War II and the Flight from Nazi Europe: 1939-1941 477

Part 5 Refugee in the United States: 1941-1948

14. With Bella in America: 1941-1945 509

15. "My New-Found Love" and the Liberated Europe: 1945-1946 561

16. Exhibitions: Chicago and Paris: 1946-1948 606

Part 6 Return to France: 1948-1952

17. Orgeval: 1948-1949 651

18. Vence: 1949-1951 693

19. Second Trip to Israel: 1951 744

20. Frustrations: 1952 770

Part 7 The Last Thirty-Three Years: 1952-1985

21. Life with Vava: 1952-1956 801

22. Second Visit to Chicago: 1957-1958 840

23. Stained Glass Windows: 1958-1964 858

24. Varian Fry's Aggravation: 1964-1969 898

25. Grand Palais and Other Glories: 1969-1985 927.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 963-992) and indexes.

ISBN:

0804742138

0804742146

OCLC:

51966451