'As Mr Chagall painted’ - a meeting with the work of the great artist
"I don't know where he gets these images from. He must have an angel in his head". - another great artist, Pablo Picasso, is supposed to have said of Marc Chagall.
On 2.8.2024, the fifth meeting of this year's edition of the educational project "The Story of the Bicultural, Pre-War Mszana Dolna" took place in the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna. Chagall was, of course, not directly associated with pre-war Mszana, but no one painted the life of pre-war shtetls quite like him. In his rich oeuvre, he also combined Christian and Jewish themes, and the most important references in his universe are biblical contexts, which appear not only in his paintings, prints and stained-glass windows, but also in his tapestries, frescoes, woodcuts, lithographs, mosaics and book illustrations. His work is therefore perfectly in line with the project's objectives of educating about the bicultural past, learning about the beauty of the world of Judaism and fostering an attitude of respect and dialogue.
Born in Lozno near Vitebsk, the Jewish artist, but also a citizen of the world, lived for almost a century. During his 75 years of creative activity, he created almost 10,000 works, in a variety of styles, genres and poetics. Surrealism, naive art, impressionism, colourism, fauvism, cubism, orphism intermingle in Marc Chagall's work. However, from this melting pot emerges his unique creative originality, which can be called Chagallism. In the artist's work, worlds and mentalities also intermingle: east with west, provinciality with the big world of Paris, Hasidic shtetls, biblical themes, Jewish and Christian contexts, and all as if in an oneiric, unreal, extremely beautiful world where gravity and logic exist on their own, quite original principles.
The audience, gathered in large numbers at the library, had the opportunity to learn about both Chagall's biography and the representative strands of his work, with a particular focus on three areas: atmospheric paintings of Jewish shtetls, with a fiddler on the roof, "with a cockerel and a ram's head" - as Wojciech Młynarski wrote in the song opening the meeting, biblical, Christian-Jewish themes, and stained glass, which he did not start creating until he was 70! These extraordinary works by the artist, commissioned for both Christian cathedrals and Jewish synagogues and the headquarters of international organisations, provided an opportunity to learn about the symbolism of the 12 tribes of Israel and other biblical references.
Participants had the opportunity to find out what the seven-fingered figure of the Madonna means in Chagall's work, but also about the artist himself, the origin of flying animals in his paintings, and what other concepts from Yiddish phraseology feature in the works on display. They also learned about the Polish strand of Chagall's work - his illustrations to a poem by Jerzy Ficowski.
And at the end, after the reading of a moving note about the lighting of Shabbat candles by the artist's beloved wife, Bella, the lights of remembrance and sorrow for our Jewish fellow citizens were lit, and the participants were, traditionally, treated to a still-warm challah, prepared by Sztetl Mszana Dolna for the occasion. A 'Chagall' cake, laced with anecdotal memories of the organisers, was also enjoyed.
Those who could not attend could take part in the broadcast on the FB profile of Sztetl Mszana Dolna. A recording of the meeting will soon be available on the YouTube channel @sztetlmszanadolna.
The event was held under the honorary patronage of the Town Mayor, Agnieszka Orzeł.
Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the Programme of the National Centre for Culture EtnoPolska. Edition 2024
Photos: Rachela Antosz-Rekucka, Marek Rekucki, Henryk Musiał
