Chagall: A Biography
by Jackie Wullschlager
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jackie WullschlagerEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-21
ISBN: 037541455X
Number of pages: 608
Publisher: Knopf
Book Reviews of Chagall: A Biography
Book Review: A Biography and Food for Thought
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing story of not only a famous artist but also of a survivor. His achievement in art and his survivorship are feats for the time and place of his life. This author shows how the survivorship helped create the art.
Born on the wrong side of the tracks in the wrong side of the wrong country, Chagall was fortunate to attend school. One would have expected more family pressure on him to pursue a more practical career. He went to St. Petersburg to further his artistic studies, but as a Jew it was not a friendly city. Without residence papers he spent time in jail. He moved to Paris without money, back to Vitebsk to marry Bella at the dawn of the Revolution, then to Moscow after her parents' house was taken by the mobs. In Moscow friends and critics died by starvation, purge or suicidal depression. Chagall, Bella and daughter Ida moved to Germany then to France and then to the US. Each move was fraught with danger and peril.
The author shows Chagall as a product of his time, a Jew from the Pale who fled the revolution, a man of traditional ways. With elegantly written historical background, the book is like course in art appreciation. There are references to many known and some obscure painters and styles. Jackie Wullschlager describes the many color plates and black and whites as well as many paintings and drawings not included in the volume. . She gives the background on the art and the conditions under which it was created in a way the reader can understand. She gives a view of Chagall's feelings, values and interior life.
The photos of the young Chagall and Bella have the look of modernity, a look not often seen in vintage photos. Wullschlager describes expressions, for instance, Bella shows weariness, and you look at the photo and while it might not be immediately apparent, upon inspection, you agree.
I expect the Meyer biography of the 1960's and Bella's writings provide the intimate perspective needed a book like this. These source materials go only so far, up to when Vava began keeping a rein on the family's public face. This may be the reason that the last 40 or so years of Chagall's life are compressed into100 pages.
This book is highly recommended for those with an interest in 20th century art.
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