Marc CHAGALL(1887-1985), Jerusalem stained glass design - the Levi generation; 1964

Color lithograph on paper; framed: 60 x 51 cm; in św p-p 31 x 23 cm

Unsigned
The work is part of the designs for 12 stained glass windows symbolizing the 12 generations of Israel commissioned for the Hadassah Hospital synagogue, presented in 1962 at an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The floral and animalistic motifs on display adhere to the Judaic prohibition against depicting human figures.

Provenance:
Work purchased from Galerie am Zwinger in Dresden
Private collection Vienna

He began his artistic studies in 1906 in Vitebsk. He then moved to St. Petersburg and continued his studies there. In 1910 he went to Paris where he opened a studio and began to present his works as part of the Salon des Independents, here he came into contact with Cubism and avant-garde poetry. During World War I, he became Commissar of Arts for the Vitebsk area. In 1920 he moved to Moscow. There he designed wall paintings and theater decorations for the State Jewish Theater. Before returning to Paris permanently, he stayed in Germany, where he trained in graphic techniques. Chagall's first solo exhibition took place at Galerie Barbasanges-Hoderbert in Paris in 1924, and from then on his works would repeatedly appear in exhibitions of major modern art museums throughout Europe, the US and Japan.
Chagall's style was initially close to naive art, later he began to succumb to the influence of Cubism and Expressionism, but he was most firmly in the Surrealist trend. In his works, the artist combined the world of unreal imagery and fantasy with the metaphorical world of Jewish symbols. He operated with such means of expression as deformation of shapes and distortion of proportions. He used vivid colors with a predominance of reds, greens and blues. He created not only paintings, but also prints, stage designs, monumental polychromes, and designed stained glass and ceramic decorations.